States with marijuana laws show drop in opioid prescriptions: Study

States with medical marijuana and recreational laws had less opioid prescriptions among Medicaid beneficiaries, according to a study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study, led by Hefei Wen of the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, found that between 2011 and 2016, opioid prescribing rates decreased by 5.88 percent in states with medical marijuana laws and by 6.38 percent in those with adult-use laws.

“Medical and adult-use marijuana laws have the potential to lower opioid prescribing for Medicaid enrollees, a high-risk population for chronic pain, opioid use disorder, and opioid overdose,” the authors wrote in the study. “[M]arijuana liberalization may serve as a component of a comprehensive package to tackle the opioid epidemic.”

Over-prescription of opioids by physicians is one of a number of factors that was shown to contribute to the nation’s ongoing opioid crisis. The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that more than 115 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. In 2015, about 2 million Americans were believed to have an addiction to prescription pain medication, and 591,000 had a heroin addiction, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

At least 46 states, D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico have some form of legislation allowing for the use of marijuana, most predominantly as a medical treatment but also for recreational use.

The latest study builds on a past research by researchers at the University of Georgia, which conducted a similar survey among medicaid enrollees and also found that opioid prescriptions decreased in states with marijuana laws, either medical or “adult use” — which can range from states with compressive sale and purchase laws to just being able to use.

“This study adds one more brick in the wall in the argument that cannabis clearly has medical applications,” David Bradford, one of the researchers on the earlier studies for the University of Georgia, told CNN. “And for pain patients in particular, our work adds to the argument that cannabis can be effective.”