Studies Find Medical Cannabis Replaces Pain Medication; Reforms Lead to Fewer Opioid Prescriptions

Two studies from the University of Georgia suggest that cannabis may be a
pain-management substitute for people with chronic or acute pain from
conditions like cancer, and that medical cannabis laws lead to fewer
opioid prescriptions.

The study, titled “Cannabis Laws and Opioid Use Among Commercially Insured
Patients With Cancer Diagnoses” and published last month in the journal
JAMA Health Forum, focused on data from patients with cancer diagnoses, and
followed how cannabis dispensary openings affected opioid prescription
rates, the average number of days per prescription, and the average number
of prescriptions per patient. The researchers found the rate of patients
with cancer with opioid prescriptions was reduced by 41.07 per 10,000, the
quarterly mean days’ supply was reduced by 2.54 days, and the mean number
of prescriptions per patient was cut by 0.099.

The study found adult-use dispensary openings were also associated with
reductions in opioid outcomes, though estimated treatment effects were
smaller, with the rate of prescriptions reduced by 20.63 per 10,000, the
mean daily supply was cut by 1.09 days supplied per prescription, and the
mean number of prescriptions per patient was reduced by 0.097.

In a statement, Felipe Lozano-Rojas, lead author of the study and an
assistant professor in the School of Public and International Affairs, said
the studies “are consistent across states and subpopulations: Cannabis
legalization has a role to play in mitigating the opioid epidemic.”

“The opioid epidemic is ongoing. Moving away from opiates and toward
cannabis seems to be a safer way of managing chronic and acute pain after
discussing with the physician in charge of the case. That being said,
this is not a free for all. These findings do not mean that everyone
experiencing any pain should use cannabis.” — Lozano-Rojas in a statement

The other study, forthcoming in the American Journal of Health Economics,
titled “The Effect of Medical Cannabis Laws on Use of Pain Medications
Among Commercially Insured Patients in the United States,” found that the
enactment of medical cannabis laws led to fewer opioid prescriptions. On
average, according to the researchers, the rate of patients receiving
opioid prescriptions fell by 16% in states that had passed the reforms.

“We were able to leverage the data we had access to in a way that shows the
decrease in opioids happens across genders, across ages, across races,
across socioeconomic demographics when medical cannabis is available as an
alternative,” Lozano-Rojas said in a statement. “Even those who do receive
opioid prescriptions received less in situations when medical cannabis was
available.”