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.”