A newly published study found that among drug users who experience chronic pain, daily cannabis use was linked to a higher likelihood of quitting the use of opioids—especially among men.
Report published by Drug and Alcohol Review, last week. “Participants who report daily cannabis use showed higher rates of quitting compared with less frequent users and non-users.”
Researchers found that when results were broken down by gender, “daily marijuana use” was associated with higher rates of opiate cessation in males. These differences suggest that cannabis users may behave differently and have different effects. The paper calls for more research.
Eight researchers, including members of the British Columbia Centre on Substance Abuse and the University of British Columbia as well as Simon Fraser University, authored this report.
Data from 1 242 drug users (PWUD) who were also suffering chronic pain was examined between June 2014 to May 2022. 764 of those people experienced “a discontinuation event.”
It says that daily cannabis use “was positively related to opioid cessation.”
The authors concluded that “our findings contribute to a growing body of evidence supporting potential cannabis benefits among PWUD and underline the need for more research.”
A growing number of studies have examined the association between cannabis reforms and opioids. They often found that opioid usage was reduced in regions where marijuana is legalized for medical or adult purposes.
A recent federally funded study in the U.S., for example, found an association between state-level marijuana legalization and reduced prescriptions for opioid pain medications among commercially insured adults—indicating a possible substitution effect where patients are choosing to use cannabis instead of prescription drugs to treat pain.
This research was funded by a National Institute on Drug Abuse grant and examined national records on opioid prescriptions, as well prescribing non-steroidal pain medication (NSAIDs), as well as other types of pain medication. Analyses showed that opioid prescription fills declined following the legalization of drugs in U.S., while prescribing other pain medication saw “marginally significative increases”.
In a study that was published last year, the authors found “evidence of this reduction” being due to medical cannabis becoming available to replace prescription painkillers.
Recent research has also shown a drop in the number of fatal opioid overdoses among jurisdictions that have legalized marijuana for adults. That study found a “consistent negative relationship” between legalization and fatal overdoses, with more significant effects in states that legalized cannabis earlier in the opioid crisis. The authors estimated that legalizing recreational marijuana “is associated” with a reduction of approximately 3.5 fatalities per 100,000 people.
This report stated that “our findings suggest that broader access to recreational marijuana could help combat the opioid epidemic.” Previous research has shown that marijuana, primarily used for medical purposes, can help reduce the number of opioid prescriptions. We also found it could reduce overdoses.
This effect is heightened with early implementation [recreational marijuana legalization]This relationship appears to be relatively stable over the years,” it said.
Another recently published report into prescription opioid use in Utah following the state’s legalization of medical marijuana found that the availability of legal cannabis both reduced opioid use by patients with chronic pain and helped drive down prescription overdose deaths statewide. It concluded that the results showed “cannabis plays a significant role in pain management, and is able to reduce opioid use.”
Yet another study, published in 2023, linked medical marijuana use to lower pain levels and reduced dependence on opioids and other prescription medications. And another, published by the American Medical Association (AMA) last February, found that chronic pain patients who received medical marijuana for longer than a month saw significant reductions in prescribed opioids.
About one in three chronic pain patients reported using cannabis as a treatment option, according to a 2023 AMA-published report. The majority of those in that group reported using cannabis to replace other pain medication, such as opioids.
Other research published that year found that letting people buy CBD legally significantly reduced opioid prescription rates, leading to 6.6 percent to 8.1 percent fewer opioid prescriptions.
A 2022 research paper that analyzed Medicaid data on prescription drugs, meanwhile, found that legalizing marijuana for adult use was associated with “significant reductions” in the use of prescription drugs for the treatment of multiple conditions.
A 2023 report linked state-level medical marijuana legalization to reduced opioid payouts to doctors—another datapoint suggesting that patients use cannabis as an alternative to prescription drugs when given legal access.
Researchers in another study, published last year, looked at opioid prescription and mortality rates in Oregon, finding that nearby access to retail marijuana moderately reduced opioid prescriptions, though they observed no corresponding drop in opioid-related deaths.
Cannabis may also be a substitute for opioids when it comes to pain management, according to other recent studies.
A report published recently in the journal BMJ Open, for instance, compared medical marijuana and opioids for chronic non-cancer pain and found that cannabis “may be similarly effective and result in fewer discontinuations than opioids,” potentially offering comparable relief with a lower likelihood of adverse effects.
Separate research published found that more than half (57 percent) of patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain said cannabis was more effective than other analgesic medications, while 40 percent reported reducing their use of other painkillers since they began using marijuana.
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Mike Latimer provided the photo.