Medical marijuana could quickly become a solution to the ongoing opioid crisis. And we've just found the best marijuana stock to buy that could soar 92.3% thanks to a new opioid-fighting initiative.
While the nationwide opioid epidemic has been worsening for years, it's just now reaching alarming levels...
Six states - Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, and Massachusetts - have declared it a public health emergency. The number of opioid-related deaths rose 75%, from roughly 20,000 in 2010 to 35,000 in 2015. According to a June 5 report from The New York Times, opioid-based drugs kill more than 100 Americans every day.
But medical marijuana appears to be helping the crisis, which is why our marijuana stock pick - courtesy of Money Morning Executive Editor Bill Patalon - could bring you a potential 92% profit...
How Medical Marijuana Is Fighting the Nationwide Opioid Crisis
Researchers across the country are quickly noticing how medical marijuana can lower the rate of opioid overdoses. That's because marijuana can be used as a non-addictive pain reliever, which patients turn to as an alternative to opioids.
In 2014, the University of Pennsylvania's Dr. Marcus Bachhuber examined the relationship between legalized cannabis and opioid overdose deaths between 1999 and 2000. The results of his study found that states with legal marijuana laws had an annual opioid death rate 25% lower than states without legalized marijuana.
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Another study conducted in 2016 by New Mexico-based nurse practitioner Anita Willard Briscoe had similar results. According to Rolling Stone, Briscoe collected self-reported data from 400 patients from 2015 to 2016. The data showed that 25% of the surveyed patients quit using opioids thanks to marijuana's similar ability to relieve pain.
Now marijuana's effectiveness in reducing opioid deaths has caught the attention of pharmaceutical companies.
Pharmaceutical companies are now developing cannabis treatments as a substitute for opioid treatments. As these firms develop more cannabis medicines, the medical marijuana market will grow. According to cannabis analytics firm New Frontier Data, medical marijuana sales are expected to grow 183%, from $4.7 billion last year to $13.3 billion in 2020.
"The developers of cannabis-based medicines are already positioning themselves to replace opioids," said Money Morning Director of Technology & Venture Capital Research - and renowned cannabis industry expert - Michael Robinson.
This is also where Bill's marijuana stock recommendation comes into play. The company we're about to show you is known for its leading opioid-based treatment, but it's now pivoting away from opioids in favor of marijuana-based medicines.
That's a sign of medical marijuana's potential to not only slow the opioid crisis, but to take over the opioid drug market.
In fact, this company just released a new cannabinoid-based drug that targets cancer-related pain back in July. Bill argues that this could be a catalyst for the stock, which analysts expect to climb 92.3% in one year...
This Is the Best Marijuana Stock to Buy in 2017
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One of Bill's favorite marijuana stocks to buy right now is Insys Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: INSY). This is a pharmaceutical company that mainly develops treatments for cancer-related pain and nausea.
For years, Insys' main product was an opioid-based spray called Subsys. From 2012, when it first launched, to 2014, Subsys was the most prescribed immediate-release opioid spray in the United States. IMS Health reported the product cornered 48% of the opioid market in terms of number of prescriptions.
But the rise of the opioid crisis has caused Subsys sales to drop off. Prescriptions of the drug fell 32% from Q4 2016 to Q1 2017. The number of weekly Subsys prescriptions in March reached just 296 - the lowest since 2013.
Now, the company is quickly moving away from opioid treatments in favor of safer alternatives. One of the ways it's doing that is by developing cannabinoid-based pain medications, the first of which just became available for prescription on July 31...
The drug is called Syndros, and it's used mainly to treat chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). Syndros has a huge customer market since these symptoms affect between 70% and 80% of the over 15 million cancer patients living in the United States. That's 10.5 million to 12 million people, at least, who would benefit from the treatment.
Syndros is a safe substitute for opioid treatment because its primary ingredient is Delta-9-THC, which naturally occurs in marijuana. According to Bill, this new product places INSY stock at the intersection of two exploding markets - medical marijuana and pain management.
Medical marijuana sales are expected to increase by 183% over the next three years, while revenue from pain treatment medications could soar 38.3% to $83 billion in 2024.
"Insys has big upside because it's trying (and, so far, succeeding with flying colors) to work at the 'convergence' of those two powerful trends," Bill told Money Morning readers on May 30.
Analysts are also bullish on the Insys stock price. Thomson Reuters analysts give it a high one-year target of $18 per share. That means you could see a return of 92.3% - nearly doubling your money - if you purchase shares at today's price of $9.36.
The Bottom Line: As the U.S. opioid crisis keeps getting worse, pharmaceutical and marijuana companies are starting to realize they can profit by replacing opioids with cannabis. This initiative is what makes INSY stock one of Bill's favorite marijuana plays of 2017.
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