Indopedia All Things Marijuana
Two new studies published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal this week significantly fewer opioid prescriptions than those that did not. The study also reported that the number of opioid prescriptions prescribed via Medicaid dropped even further in states with legalized recreational marijuana. “
The second study examined the number of opioid prescriptions filled under Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit plan for Medicare patients. 742 million fewer daily doses of opioid drugs.
“This study adds one more brick in the wall in the argument that cannabis clearly has medical applications,” David Bradford, one of the lead authors of the Medicare study,
These two new studies support previous research that highlights associations between medical cannabis and reduced rates of opioid use or deaths. Both studies also found that around 40% of patients studied were able to completely cease their opioid use after switching to cannabis-based treatments.
