Several studies from over the years have all been pointing to the same thing. States that offer medical and/or recreational cannabis for citizens are seeing less opioid prescriptions and usage. Why is that?
Cannabis is known to help reduce pain and inflammation, something that opioids also do. But with opioids, they function directly in the nervous system and have increasingly high addiction rates. In fact, the CDC has stated that opioid overdose deaths have increased over six times since 1999. There’s a reason there’s an opioid epidemic in the United States, and it continues to grow every year. Stil, states with legal cannabis are seeing a change for the better when it comes to overdoses and deaths from opioids.
Recent Research
There have been several studies over the years. But a recent one from the Harvard Medical School Department of Public Health is showing some significant changes. Harvard joined with the University of Kentucky’s Martin School of Public Policy and Administration as well as the Institute of Biomedical Informatics to conduct their research. They looked at data from 2009 to 2015, collected by IBM, when states were beginning to legalize medical cannabis more often and recreational cannabis legalization had begun.
Legal cannabis reduced the “morphine milligram equivalents” people took. For medical cannabis users, this reduction sat at around seven percent. For recreational cannabis, it was a 13 percent decrease in opioid use. This especially occured in middle-aged consumers from around 40-54.
This information came from data of around 30 million insured employees every year of the data provided, so from 2009-2015. However Medicaid and Medicare patients were not included.
Similar Studies
This study from Harvard isn’t the only study conducted on the effects of opioids and cannabis legalization. Scientists have been researching this effect for a few decades now, since medical cannabis became legalized in states such as California, Washington, and Colorado.
One study in 2019 looked at reduction rates of opioid prescriptions and their age range. For medical cannabis, the highest reduction rates of opioid prescriptions happened for patients aged 55-64. For recreational cannabis, the highest reduction rate came from ages 35-54. Offering cannabis as a viable form of pain relief and anti-anxiety and antidepressant is helping the middle-aged population as a whole.
Another 2020 study looked into using medical cannabis usage for non-cancer patients and their pain. Overall, a 64-75 percent reduction in opioid prescription and use happened when patients received a medical cannabis prescription.
Future
People are responding to cannabis is positive ways, not just for revenue and for feeling a sense of euphoria, but also for medical reasons. They are feeling less pain, are off opioids, and are less likely to switch back to opioids given the opportunity. This could be one way to reduce the opioid epidemic in the country, but only time will tell, as well as more research.
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