State-level marijuana legalization is associated with significant reductions in prescribing of the opioid codeine, according to a new study that leverages data from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).<\/p>\n
The paper, published last week in the journal Health Economics, looked at data on prescription opioid shipments in 11 states that legalized cannabis for adult use between 2010-2019, comparing them to prohibitionist states. It found that recreational legalization is linked to a \u201c26 percent reduction in retail pharmacy-based codeine distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers from Cornell University, George Mason University, the University of Georgia and the University of Pittsburgh said that the same trend wasn\u2019t observed for other opioids like hydrocodone and morphine, or shipments to hospitals where there tend to be more stringent prescribing policies.<\/p>\n
However, the \u201cfinding is suggestive that [recreational legalization] may help achieve reductions in opioid misuse, as codeine is a lower-potency opioid with high potential for misuse,\u201d the study found.<\/p>\n
\u201cCollectively, our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that reductions in opioid demand affected by [recreational cannabis laws], unlike [medical cannabis laws], may be evidence of decreased opioid misuse more than decreased use of prescription opioids to manage chronic pain,\u201d the study authors wrote.<\/p>\n
One way that this research article<\/a> is unique is that its \u201cprimary data source\u201d was DEA\u2019s Automation of Reports and Consolidation Orders System (ARCOS).<\/p>\n \u201cWe are the first study, to our knowledge, to leverage ARCOS data which details distribution by endpoint\u2014pharmacies, hospitals, specialists, and narcotic treatment programs\u2014to study the effects of\u201d recreational legalization, the authors wrote.<\/p>\n They further said that the effect of legalization on codeine prescribing became more pronounced over years, \u201cincreasing from -17.5 percent one year after RCL implementation to -37.3 percent four years after implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat our findings suggest RCLs affect a reduction specifically in codeine distribution is of particular interest because, among legally distributed opioids, codeine is particularly likely to be misused and diverted,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot rule out that these reductions are due to a reduction in use of codeine as prescribed; however, the lack of other reductions in opioid dispensing suggests that this is not the case. Our findings stand in contrast to the literature on MCLs, which finds that MCLs affect reductions in the dispensing of a variety of opioids that do not have misuse rates as high as codeine.\u201d<\/p>\n Relatedly, another study recently study published by the American Medical Association (AMA) found that about one in three chronic pain patients report using marijuana<\/a> as a treatment option, and most of that group has used cannabis as a substitute for other pain medications, including opioids<\/p>\n A separate recent AMA study found that state-level medical marijuana legalization is associated with a significant decrease in opioid prescriptions and use<\/a>\u00a0among certain cancer patients.<\/p>\n A study that was released in September similarly found that giving people legal access to medical cannabis\u00a0can help patients reduce their use of opioid painkillers<\/a>, or cease use altogether, without compromising quality of life.<\/p>\n That same month, another study found that the\u00a0pharmaceutical industry takes a serious economic hit after states legalize marijuana<\/a>\u2014with an average market loss of nearly $10 billion for drugmakers per each legalization event.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no deficit of\u00a0anecdotal reports<\/a>,\u00a0data-based studies<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0observational analyses<\/a>\u00a0that have signaled that some people use cannabis as an alternative to traditional pharmaceutical drugs like opioid-based painkillers and sleep medications.<\/p>\n Last year, a research paper that analyzed Medicaid data on prescription drugs found that legalizing marijuana for adult use is associated with\u00a0\u201csignificant reductions\u201d in the use of prescription drugs<\/a>\u00a0for the treatment of multiple conditions.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a study funded by a top federal drug agency that was released in November found that state-level marijuana legalization\u00a0is not associated with increased youth cannabis use<\/a>.<\/p>\n Researchers published more than\u00a04,300 studies on marijuana and its components<\/a>\u00a0in 2022, an analysis from NORML found.<\/p>\n Marijuana Improves Sex And Could Help Close \u2018Orgasm Inequality Gap\u2019 Between Men And Women, New Study Indicates<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post DEA Data Shows Marijuana Legalization Linked To \u2018Reductions In Opioid Demand,\u2019 New Study Finds<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
State-level marijuana legalization is associated with significant reductions in prescribing of the opioid codeine, according to a new study that leverages data from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The paper, published last week in the journal Health Economics, looked at data on prescription opioid shipments in 11 states thatContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15462],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61126"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61127,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61126\/revisions\/61127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: DEA Data Shows Marijuana Legalization Linked To \u2018Reductions In Opioid Demand,\u2019 New Study Finds<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"