Study: Medical Marijuana Use Linked to Reduced Pain and Lower Reliance on Prescription Painkillers

Researchers from the University of Louisiana surveyed more than 2,000 participants and found clear patterns in who uses medical marijuana, how often they use it, and how it relates to prescription pain medication. According to the study, respondents reported an average reduction of 3.4 points on a 10-point pain scale after using medical marijuana. The survey also revealed that patients who were still using prescription pain medications were 1.5 times more likely to report less frequent marijuana use.

Conversely, those who had stopped taking prescription painkillers were significantly more likely—by roughly 26.5%—to increase their medical marijuana consumption.

Researchers found that demographic factors such as age and race, along with a person’s primary reason for enrolling in the program and their chosen ingestion method, all correlated with how they used medical marijuana.

Overall, the findings support the conclusion that medical marijuana often replaces prescription pain medications for many Louisiana patients, offering a non-opioid alternative for managing chronic pain and inflammation.