How can cannabis legalization laws impact opioid use? This is what a recent study published in the American Journal of Health Economics hopes to address as a team of researchers from the University of Georgia and Indiana University investigated a link between medical cannabis laws (MCLs) and pain management prescriptions. This study has the potential to help researchers, medical professionals, and the public better understand the health benefits of MCLs while mitigating the use of prescription medications for pain.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 15 to 20 million privately insured patients between 2007 and 2020 with the goal of ascertaining how MCLs impact opioid use among patients, specifically through pain medication prescriptions. This study comes as a total of 39 states and the District of Columbia have enacted MCLs. In the end, the researchers discovered that MCLs have decreased opioid use by a national average of approximately 16 percent, while individual states observed an average decrease of 22 percent.
The study notes, “This study extends the literature in three key ways: first, it reveals substantial heterogeneity across states, often masked by average treatment effects; second, it is the first study to document differential effects by patient characteristics including cancer status, sex, age, and race/ethnicity; and third, it provides plausibly causal estimates, with detailed discussion of the methodological assumptions. Together, these findings support the potential of MCLs as a policy tool for reducing opioid use and promoting safer pain management.”
This study comes as 2023 estimates state opioid overdose was responsible for 80,000 deaths, which accounted for almost 80 percent of total drug overdoses that year. Therefore, studies like this could potentially help medical professionals and legislators better understand the benefits of using cannabis as a substitute for opioid as pain medications.
How will MCLs continue to impact opioid use in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: American Journal of Health Economics, Marijuana Moment