The American Medical Association supports research that shows cannabis can prevent opioid addiction
Opioid addiction claims tens of thousands of lives each year in the US States with progressive cannabis laws are seeing this trend change the fight against opioids. In fact, a recent study by the American Medical Association (AMA) indicates that the legalization of medical cannabis has a strong link to reduced opioid use, especially when it comes to cancer patients.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has exposed the enormous cost of the opioid crisis. According to their estimates, 63,000 people in the US died in 2016 from opioid addiction-related causes. However, this figure may have been even higher had medical marijuana not begun to be legalized in different states across the country.
These legislative moves have caused a significant decrease in opioid prescriptions and use among certain cancer patients. The AMA has wanted to delve deeper into the issue through recent research, which, according to its findings, appears to be an overall benefit in society having access to medical cannabis.
Having analyzed insurance claims data from 38,189 people with newly diagnosed cancer, the study found that medical marijuana legalization implemented between 2012 and 2017 was associated with a “5.5% to 19.2% relative reduction in the rate of opioid dispensing.”
The study concluded that being able to access the therapeutic benefits of cannabis has served as a way for cancer patients to replace their opioid-based therapies. Still, the researchers made it clear that “future studies must elucidate the nature of the associations and the implications for patient outcomes.”