State-level marijuana legalization is related to important reductions in prescribing of the opioid codeine, in keeping with a brand new examine that leverages information from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The paper, printed final week within the journal Well being Economics, checked out information on prescription opioid shipments in 11 states that legalized hashish for grownup use between 2010-2019, evaluating them to prohibitionist states. It discovered that leisure legalization is linked to a “26 % discount in retail pharmacy-based codeine distribution.”
The researchers from Cornell College, George Mason College, the College of Georgia and the College of Pittsburgh stated that the identical pattern wasn’t noticed for different opioids like hydrocodone and morphine, or shipments to hospitals the place there are usually extra stringent prescribing insurance policies.
Nonetheless, the “discovering is suggestive that [recreational legalization] might assist obtain reductions in opioid misuse, as codeine is a lower-potency opioid with excessive potential for misuse,” the examine discovered.
“Collectively, our findings are in line with the speculation that reductions in opioid demand affected by [recreational cannabis laws], in contrast to [medical cannabis laws], could also be proof of decreased opioid misuse greater than decreased use of prescription opioids to handle power ache,” the examine authors wrote.
A method that this research article is exclusive is that its “major information supply” was DEA’s Automation of Reviews and Consolidation Orders System (ARCOS).
“We’re the primary examine, to our information, to leverage ARCOS information which particulars distribution by endpoint—pharmacies, hospitals, specialists, and narcotic remedy applications—to check the results of” leisure legalization, the authors wrote.
They additional stated that the impact of legalization on codeine prescribing turned extra pronounced over years, “rising from -17.5 % one 12 months after RCL implementation to -37.3 % 4 years after implementation.”
“That our findings recommend RCLs have an effect on a discount particularly in codeine distribution is of specific curiosity as a result of, amongst legally distributed opioids, codeine is especially more likely to be misused and diverted,” they wrote.
“We can not rule out that these reductions are as a result of a discount in use of codeine as prescribed; nonetheless, the shortage of different reductions in opioid shelling out means that this isn’t the case. Our findings stand in distinction to the literature on MCLs, which finds that MCLs have an effect on reductions within the shelling out of quite a lot of opioids that don’t have misuse charges as excessive as codeine.”
Relatedly, one other examine lately examine printed by the American Medical Affiliation (AMA) discovered that about one in three power ache sufferers report utilizing marijuana as a remedy possibility, and most of that group has used hashish as an alternative to different ache drugs, together with opioids
A separate current AMA examine discovered that state-level medical marijuana legalization is related to a big lower in opioid prescriptions and use amongst sure most cancers sufferers.
A examine that was launched in September equally discovered that giving folks authorized entry to medical hashish might help sufferers scale back their use of opioid painkillers, or stop use altogether, with out compromising high quality of life.
That very same month, one other examine discovered that the pharmaceutical trade takes a critical financial hit after states legalize marijuana—with a median market lack of practically $10 billion for drugmakers per every legalization occasion.
There’s no deficit of anecdotal studies, data-based research and observational analyses which have signaled that some folks use hashish as an alternative choice to conventional pharmaceutical medicine like opioid-based painkillers and sleep drugs.
Final 12 months, a analysis paper that analyzed Medicaid information on prescribed drugs discovered that legalizing marijuana for grownup use is related to “important reductions” in the usage of prescribed drugs for the remedy of a number of situations.
In the meantime, a examine funded by a prime federal drug company that was launched in November discovered that state-level marijuana legalization isn’t related to elevated youth hashish use.
Researchers printed greater than 4,300 research on marijuana and its elements in 2022, an evaluation from NORML discovered.
Photograph courtesy of Brian Shamblen.