Fewer Prescriptions For Anxiety, Sleep & Pain Meds In States With Legal Marijuana, Why Is That?

People afflicted with anxiety, sleep, pain or seizures who also have access to legal recreational cannabis can and do reduce their use of prescription drugs, according to an analysis by a Cornell research team.

When states legalize recreational cannabis, the volume of prescriptions for drugs that treat an array of medical conditions significantly declines, researchers found.

Their paper titled “Recreational Cannabis Legalizations Associated with Reductions in Prescription Drug Utilization Among Medicaid Enrollees” was published on April 15 in the journal Health Economics, reported Neuroscience News.

It focuses on the potential impact of recreational legalization in 10 states plus Washington, D.C.

Shyam Raman, a doctoral student at Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy and Indiana University doctoral student Ashley Bradford conducted the research using data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in all 50 states from 2011 to 2019.

They were examining whether there’s a statistically significant relationship between giving adults legal access to regulated marijuana and the use of pharmaceuticals for six different conditions.

“These results have important implications,” Raman said. “The reductions in drug utilization that we find could lead to significant cost savings for state Medicaid programs. The results also indicate an opportunity to reduce the harm that can come with the dangerous side effects associated with some prescription drugs.”

The study found that, on average, adult-use cannabis legalization could be associated with reductions in prescription drug utilization for depression (-11 percent), anxiety (-12 percent), pain (-8 percent), seizures (-10 percent), psychosis (-11 percent) and sleep (-11 percent).

Other studies have shown that medical cannabis legalization seems to correlate with a drop in the use of certain prescription drugs.

“It’s fair to say that this [new paper] shows the scope of potential substitution is broader with adult-use legalization” compared to medical marijuana alone, Raman wrote in an email to Marijuana Moment.

Medical Marijuana Can Reduce Use Of Opioid Painkillers For Treating Back Pain & Osteoarthritis

In the meantime, providing patients with chronic back pain and osteoarthritis (OA) access to medical cannabis can reduce or even eliminate the use of opioids for pain management, according to two studies presented at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

The studies, led by principal investigator Asif M. Ilyas, MD, MBA, FAAOS, also demonstrated that pain and quality of life scores improved after patients were certified for medical cannabis.

So far, around 18 states, two territories and the District of Columbia have enacted measures to regulate cannabis for adult non-medical use.

Even states with conservative strongholds are getting on-board with the marijuana revolution. In fact, there are ten red states that are making moves to go green by the end of 2022, despite anti-legalization sentiment among some Republican senators.

Photo: Courtesy of Elsa Olofsson on Unsplash