According to a recent study in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, legalizing medical marijuana was associated with “a lower frequency” of non-prescribed opioids.
Researchers said that while the drop was small – between 0.6 and 1.5 percent – for people who used opioids regularly or frequently, it was mainly in those with cannabis use disorders. They also noted that the reduction could be a sign of “substitution effects” due to the partial replacement by cannabis of opioids.
The team of researchers, which includes Rutgers, Columbia, and the University of Arizona School of Government and Public Policy’s School of Government and Public Policy schools, said that the findings highlight the importance of “identifying the tradeoffs of legalizing cannabis as an intervention to decrease opioid-related harms.”
The study examined nonmedical opioid use (NMPO), specifically, prescription opioids that were used without a prescribed prescription or in other ways than prescribed.
The study found that despite the decline in frequent and regular opioid use, medical cannabis legalization was also associated with an increase of 2.1 percent in occasional prescription opioids. This is defined as once to 12 times per calendar year.
Researchers found that cannabis use disorder (CUD), which is a mental illness, was driving the trend. After the medical marijuana laws were implemented, opioid usage by people with CUD fell by 4.9 per cent.
Hillary Samples is the lead author of this study. She is a professor of Health Systems and Policy at Rutgers School of Public Health. Samples said that although the results of the study suggest that people are replacing opioids with marijuana, the reduction in opioid usage was modest and only limited to high-risk cannabis users. While it may be important to consider from a harm reduction perspective, it is not the only solution for opioid abuse.
Samples stated in a Rutgers release that the study could have some benefits. There are more effective policy interventions that can be made to combat the overdose crisis. For example, increasing access to opioid addiction treatment.
Check out a new publication from @RutgersPETS researcher @HillarySamples finding that medical #cannabis legalization is associated w/ a decrease in frequency of nonmedical prescription #opioiduse.#cannabis #opioiduse @RutgersResearch @rutgershealth https://t.co/JGZuyGdg8A
— Rutgers Institute for Health (@rutgersifh) November 14, 2023
Study: “From a harm-reduction perspective, this could suggest that MCL can reduce the risk of opioid-related mortality and morbidity in high-risk cannabis users.” The potential tradeoffs associated with MCL should be carefully considered by policymakers and public health practitioners. Evidence suggests that MCL increases cannabis use and disorder.
The authors said that future research should include measures of the purposes or indications of cannabis use to better understand how medical pot laws impact opioid usage.
The study concluded that “while this suggests MCL has some potential to lower risk of opioid related morbidity and death in high-risk cannabis addict groups,” “findings must be interpreted within the context of the broader literature regarding the association between MCL and cannabis outcomes, and the association between individual-level cannabis consumption and adverse opioid-related outcomes.”
While the findings are not impressive in terms of reducing the opioid epidemic, they do contribute to the body of research that shows legal cannabis access can reduce opioid usage.
A federally-funded study in August found, for instance, that cannabis was associated with a significant reduction of opioid cravings among people who used them without prescription. This suggests that expanding the availability of legal cannabis may provide a safer alternative for more people.
In a separate study, published last month, it was found that legal accessibility to CBD products resulted in significant reductions of opioid prescriptions. State-level decreases ranged between 6.6 and 8.1 percent.
In a report published this summer, medical marijuana users were linked to reduced pain levels, and reduced dependency on opioids. The American Medical Association published a study in February that found chronic pain patients receiving medical marijuana for more than a month experienced significant reductions in opioids.
AMA released research that showed that about 1 in 3 chronic pain sufferers report using cannabis for treatment options, and that most of this group have used cannabis to replace other pain medications including opioids.
According to a recent study, state-level marijuana legalization was also associated with a significant reduction in the prescribing opioid codeine.
According to a study released last year, giving patients legal access medical cannabis could help them reduce or stop using opioid painkillers without compromising their quality of life.
There are also many data-based analyses, observations which indicate that cannabis is used as a substitute for traditional pharmaceutical drugs such as opioid-based painkillers or sleep medication.
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The article Medical Marijuana Legalization Leads To Reduction In Frequent Usage Of Nonmedical Prescription Painkillers, Study Finds first appeared on Marijuana moment.
