New research from the University of Georgia reveals that medical marijuana could potentially be a substitute for people dealing with chronic or acute pain.
One UGA study shows that laws legalizing the sale and use of medical marijuana led to fewer opioid prescriptions. The second UGA study focuses on the data from cancer patients and how the opening of a cannabis dispensary affects opioid prescription rates.
According to one of the studies, published in the American Journal of Health Ethics, the average rate of patients receiving opioid prescriptions fell by 16% in states that legalized medical marijuana. These decreases were seen in different demographics, including age groups, race, ethnicities, and gender.
The second study, published by the JAMA Health Forum, focused on data collected from patients with cancer diagnoses, following how cannabis dispensary openings affected prescription rates, and the average number of prescriptions per patient. The researchers discovered that reductions in opioid prescriptions were greater when dispensaries opened than when medical marijuana was legalized. Removing the barriers could potentially convince some individuals to switch from opioids to cannabis.
Prescription opioids like hydrocodone, oxycodone, and morphine help manage pain, but these painkillers can come with risks such as addiction, overdose, and sometimes death. The researchers pointed out that pain patients are less likely to develop a substance use disorder for marijuana than opioids.
