Scheduled for decades as akin to heroin — one of the myriad opiates of which the U.S. is currently experiencing an outright crisis — cannabis has remained the star target of the Drug Enforcement Agency's contentious war on drugs.

But that may be about to change — and soon.

A dramatic shift in language on the government's National Institute on Drug Abuse's website bears every indication federal prohibition on cannabis' days are numbered — specifically, as a means to break the chokehold with which opioid medications have stymied the fight against addiction.

"Medical marijuana products may have a role in reducing the use of opioids needed to control pain," the NIDA website now states — startlingly in alignment with voluminous government-funded and independent research.

In particular, NIDA heralded the results of two studies it funded, one of which "found an association between medical marijuana legalization and a reduction in overdose deaths from opioid pain relievers."