Patients In New York’s Medical Marijuana Program Saw ‘Significantly Reduced’ Opioid Prescriptions, Federally Funded Study Shows

A federally funded study published by the American Medical Association
(AMA) is adding more evidence that marijuana can serve as an effective
substitute for opioids in chronic pain treatment.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
(JAMA) Internal Medicine on Monday, looked at opioid prescribing trends
among chronic pain patients who became involved in the New York’s medical
cannabis program between 2018 and 2023.

“Medical cannabis is increasingly considered a substitute for prescription
opioid medications for chronic pain, driven by the urgent need for opioid
alternatives to combat the ongoing epidemic,” the authors noted.

To that end, their results showed that New York’s marijuana program “was
associated with significantly reduced prescription opioid receipt.”

The 204 participants recruited for the research project—which was led by
scientists at the Montefiore Medical Center, University of Arizona and City
University of New York—were all prescribed opioids for pain management and
were “newly certified for medical cannabis use.” Their cannabis and opioid
use was monitored over the course of 18 months.

The study found that average opioid use significantly decreased in the
months they incorporated marijuana into their treatment regiment. Compared
to chronic pain patients who didn’t use cannabis, the marijuana patients
reported 3.53 fewer morphine milligram equivalents (MME) in daily opioid
use.

“Chronic pain and opioid addiction are two of the most pressing health
challenges in the United States,” Deepika E. Slawek, M.D., M.S., the
study’s lead author, said in a press release. “Our findings indicate that
medical cannabis, when dispensed through a pharmacist-supervised system,
can relieve chronic pain while also meaningfully reducing patients’
reliance on prescription opioids. Supervised use of medical cannabis could
be an important tool in combatting the opioid crisis.”

The newly published paper itself says that “participation in NYS’s medical
cannabis program was associated with reduced prescription opioid receipt
during 18 months of prospective follow-up, accounting for unregulated
cannabis use.”

“Our study was novel in that we prospectively studied medical cannabis
provision in an exceptionally medicalized program with involvement of
pharmacists and clinicians,” the the authors wrote, noting the utilization
of data from New York’s prescription monitoring program.

“In this prospective, longitudinal cohort study, participation in NYSMCP as
determined by pharmacist-reported days of medical cannabis dispensed was
associated with a reduction in prescription opioid receipt,” the study
says. “Our findings add to existing evidence that suggests that medical
cannabis may be a substitute for prescription opioids in patients with
chronic pain.”

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) financially supported the
research.

This represents one of a continually growing number of examples of studies
indicating that cannabis could provide relief for pain and an alternative
to more addictive treatment options such as prescription opioids.

For example, another recent federally funded study from AMA found that
legalizing marijuana for medical or recreational purposes is “significantly
associated with reduced opioid use among patients diagnosed with cancer.”

A separate paper published in October similarly found that medical
marijuana legalization is “associated with significant reductions in opioid
prescribing.”

In August, meanwhile, Australian researchers published a study showing that marijuana
can serve as an effective substitute for opioids in pain management
treatment.

Another study published earlier this year in the journal Drug and Alcohol
Review found that, among drug users who experience chronic pain, daily cannabis
use was linked to a higher likelihood of quitting the use of opioids—especially
among men.

Research published late last year also found that legalizing medical
cannabis appeared to significantly reduce monetary payments from opioid
manufacturers to doctors who specialize in pain, with authors finding
“evidence that this decrease is due to medical marijuana becoming available
as a substitute” for prescription painkillers.

Other recent research also showed a decline in fatal opioid overdoses in
jurisdictions where marijuana was legalized for adults. That study found a “consistent
negative relationship” between legalization and fatal overdoses, with more
significant effects in states that legalized cannabis earlier in the opioid
crisis. Authors estimated that recreational marijuana legalization “is
associated with a decrease of approximately 3.5 deaths per 100,000
individuals.”

“Our findings suggest that broadening recreational marijuana access could
help address the opioid epidemic,” that report said. “Previous research
largely indicates that marijuana (primarily for medical use) can reduce
opioid prescriptions, and we find it may also successfully reduce overdose
deaths.”

Another recently published report into prescription opioid use in Utah
following the state’s legalization of medical marijuana found that the
availability of legal cannabis both reduced opioid use by patients with
chronic pain and helped drive down prescription overdose deaths statewide.
Overall, results of the study indicated that “cannabis has a substantial
role to play in pain management and the reduction of opioid use,” it said.

The post Patients In New York’s Medical Marijuana Program Saw
‘Significantly Reduced’ Opioid Prescriptions, Federally Funded Study Shows
appeared first on Marijuana Moment.