Marijuana legalisation could help reduce US opioid addiction

According to two studies published on Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine, medical marijuana use could help reduce opioid addiction in the US.

In one study, investigators from the University of Georgia, Athens, analysed data from 2011 to 2016 compiled by Medicare Part D, a prescription drug program administered by the US government for people aged 65 and above. They found that prescriptions for opioids declined by 2.11 million daily doses a year in those states that legalised marijuana for medical use and by 3.7 million daily doses a year after the opening of medical marijuana dispensaries.

In the other study, investigators from the University of Kentucky analysed data from 2011 to 2016 compiled by Medicaid, a prescription drug program administered by the US government for disabled and poor individuals. They found that states that had legalised marijuana for medical use experienced a 5.8% reduction in opioid prescriptions, while states that legalised marijuana for both medical and recreational use experienced a 6.3% reduction. Over 74 million people in the US are enrolled in Medicaid.

These findings support the position of advocates of the legalisation of marijuana, who claim that legal marijuana use would help reduce the opioid epidemic currently raging in the US.

In an opinion article accompanying the two studies, Dr Andrew Saxon (University of Washington) and Dr Kevin Hill (Harvard Medical School) said that the studies support reports by patients who claim that marijuana use reduced their need to use opioids to relieve chronic pain.

Deaths from opioid overdoses in the US have steadily increased during the past 15 years as the marketing of these powerful drugs became more aggressive, with more than 64,000 deaths recorded in 2016.