A new study suggests participation in New York State’s medical cannabis program was associated with reduced prescription opioid receipts.
Chronic pain and opioid addiction remain pressing health issues in the United States — it has been no exaggeration to describe the situation as a crisis. Aside from other various serious impacts of addiction, deaths from overdose are all too common; with tens of thousands of Americans dying each year through the abuse of prescription and illicit opioids.
But cannabis is proving to be a valuable tool in some situations to help address the crisis.
Led by researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System, the study involved 204 adults prescribed opioids for chronic pain and newly certified for medical cannabis between September 2018 and July 2023. Participants progress was tracked for 18 months; monitored via data from New York State Prescription Monitoring Program.
Most participants reported taking an average daily opioid dose equivalent to 73.3 mg of morphine before utilising cannabis, but over the follow-up period, the average daily dose fell to 57 mg, a 22% reduction.
“Our findings indicate that medical cannabis, when dispensed through a pharmacist-supervised system, can relieve chronic pain while also meaningfully reducing patients’ reliance on prescription opioids,” said Deepika E. Slawek, M.D., M.S., the study’s lead author. “Supervised use of medical cannabis could be an important tool in combatting the opioid crisis.”
The study has been published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
These sorts of results are nothing new. Among the many examples, a study we mentioned in August found legal cannabis availability was linked to decreased opioid prescription use among cancer patients in the USA. And in Australian research involving patients with chronic non-cancer pain, that research indicated the co-use of medical cannabis may reduce prescribed opioid use
On a related note regarding New York’s medical cannabis program, Kathy Hochul recently signed Senate Bill S3294A into law, which strengthens patient rights and expands medical cannabis access across the state.
Further information on New York’s medical cannabis program can be found here. Among the qualifying conditions is Opioid Use Disorder; but the patient must be in a treatment program.
