Medical Marijuana Legalization May Reduce Use Of Opioid Painkillers, New Study Suggests

A new study of drivers who died in auto accidents suggests people in states with medical marijuana laws may be using fewer opioid painkillers, the study authors contend.

A 2015 study found medical marijuana dispensaries were associated with a 16 percent (and potentially as high as 31 percent) decline in opioid overdose deaths, especially among men, compared to states with no dispensaries.

In the study, the researchers analyzed information from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System database.

Opioid abuse is a rising drug epidemic in the USA and the states that approved medical marijuana to be legal have lower rates of incidents. “Our own work finds that abuse of marijuana and dependency are increasing in states with medical marijuana laws”.

About 1 percent to 8 percent of drivers tested positive for opioid painkillers, the study reported.

In addition to calling out drug makers on their dangerously addictive painkillers and providing research that shows medical marijuana can help curb opioid use after vehicle wrecks, there is a lot of backlash against the government for voicing biased data that suggests marijuana should remain in the same drug scheduling as heroin, meth, or cocaine, according to Forbes.

“We would expect the adverse consequences of opioid use to decrease over time in states where medical marijuana use is legal, as individuals substitute marijuana for opioids in the treatment of severe or chronic pain”, said June Kim, a doctoral student at the Mailman School of Public Health and the study’s lead author, in a press release.

Advocates are raising concerns over the length of time it will take Ohio’s medical board to draft rules governing how doctors can recommend to patients they use medical marijuana.

In states where medical marijuana law was implemented, the study found that drivers between the ages of 21 – which is the legal minimum – and 40, had nearly half the chances of testing positive for opioid painkillers, than those who crashed before such a law was implemented.

Kim said the study’s findings suggest people are turning to legal pot for pain relief instead of opioid painkillers.

If all of the votes go through, this means that nine states will have recreational marijuana and 24 states will have medical cannabis – and only 17 states will have neither.

It’s a different scenario in states that have yet to legalize marijuana, but the study did not share how much of a difference.

Furthermore, the argument that marijuana legalization is a “gateway drug” for youth is also being put to rest. However, the study did not prove medical marijuana was being used in place of opioids.

Hockenberry added that “any benefits of medical marijuana need to be balanced against the negative effects of marijuana, which are not trivial”.

“On the one hand, they could very well reduce harmful opioid use”.

The study appears September 15 in the American Journal of Public Health.