After Medical Marijuana Legalized, Medicare Prescriptions Drop For Many Drugs

They analyzed prescriptions for hundreds of drugs that can be used to treat nine conditions for which there is some evidence of benefit from marijuana.

The legalization of medical marijuana in an increasing number of USA states may be linked with a lower rate of use of other prescription drugs, a new study says.

“When states turned on a medical marijuana law”, use of treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration went down, said senior author David Bradford, a health economist at the University of Georgia, “suggesting that they were substituting something else – and the plausible thing that they would be substituting was marijuana”. Researchers found that in cases where medical marijuana can address a particular ailment, medications that do the same are less prescribed. Marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law – just like heroin – and the U.S. Department of Justice still has the authority to prosecute people who use it or even possess it. While marijuana does lower eye pressure in those with glaucoma, its effects last only about an hour.

Based on their results, the researchers estimated that the Medicare program would have saved about $468 million on prescription medications if all states had implemented medical marijuana.

Pain doctors we spoke with nearly universally agree clinical studies need to be conducted to get some hard data about the efficacy of medical marijuana on chronic pain patients. When teens were asked if they had used marijuana in the previous year, fewer teens in 2013 affirmed use than their peers reported in 2002. “We don’t know how legalization is affecting young marijuana users, but it could be that many kids with behavioral problems are more likely to get treatment earlier in childhood, making them less likely to turn to pot during adolescence”.

Researchers compared two aspects: states which had clearly defined medical marijuana laws on the books, and the number of prescriptions handed out for drugs that treated commonly occurring medical conditions like anxiety, depression, nausea, pain, psychosis, seizures, sleep disorders and spasticity.

Firstly, prescription drug prices never came down.

Arkansas voters narrowly rejected a similar medical marijuana proposal in 2012, and this fall could face two competing legalization measures.

Right now, 25 states and Washington, D.C., have made it legal to use marijuana for medical uses. Other studies have suggested that medical marijuana laws cause the drugs to become available to young people and raise traffic fatalities.

The unattainability of medical cannabis does not fulfill the spirit of the law passed to make it a legal medication. That wording may not prohibit dispensaries, Supinger said, explaining that zoning regulations could be amended to exclude the dispensing of medical marijuana as a permitted use. The implementation of the program is expected to take between 18 and 24 months and, when completed, will offer medical marijuana to patients who are residents of Pennsylvania and under a physician’s care for the treatment of a serious medical condition as defined by the act. The state has had large numbers of medical marijuana dispensaries, which sell to anyone with a state-approved medical marijuana card, since 2009. Let’s all try to remember that no matter what side we are on, we all want what is best for the cannabis plant. “I don’t think we have a full grasp yet on the long-term risks and benefits of medical marijuana”.