Direct payments from opioid manufacturers to doctors have decreased after legalization of medical cannabis

According to a new study from Purdue University, the University of Florida, University of Southern California and University of Florida, direct payments from opioid manufacturers to physicians have decreased after the legalization of medical cannabis.

The trend is a result of more patients using medical cannabis as a substitute for prescription drugs, particularly opioids, according to Marijuana Moment.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the new findings can help tackle the current opioid misuse, which led to over 106,000 deaths nationwide from drug-involved overdoses in 2021, according to the growing body of research on the benefits of medical cannabis for pain management.

The researchers said that the decrease is due to the availability of medical marijuana as a substitute. Physicians in states with an MML are prescribing fewer opioids. The researchers analyzed the payment information for each physician to track direct payments from opioid manufacturers in control states between 2014 and 2017 by using a specially designed model a novel penalized synthetic control SC.

The study found that the substitution effect is comparatively higher for female physicians and in localities with higher white, less affluent, and more working-age populations. The findings are consistent with numerous other studies showing that patients often use cannabis as an alternative to medication for chronic pain and other debilitating conditions.

Military veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD have either reduced or eliminated opioids and other addictive painkillers once they understand and experience the benefits of cannabis.

An earlier analysis by a Cornell research team showed that people afflicted with anxiety, sleep, pain or seizures who have access to legal recreational cannabis could reduce their use of prescription drugs.

Two studies presented at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic surgeons last year showed that providing patients with chronic back pain and osteoarthritis access to medical cannabis can reduce or even eliminate the use of opioids for pain management.

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