A new study shows that legalizing cannabis in the USA is associated with a decrease in opioid prescriptions among cancer patients.
More than 65% cancer patients experience pain. While the prescription of opioids for managing cancer pain is common, these medicines aren’t without their risks — ranging from constipation to dependence and abuse. Cannabis has the potential to manage cancer pain more safely and alleviate adverse side effects of cancer treatment, such as nausea from chemotherapy and lack appetite.
Researchers in Georgia, Indiana and Chicago wanted to know if openings of medical cannabis or recreational dispensaries were related to a lower use of opioids by commercially insured patients with cancer.
This study used data from Optum’s Clinformatics Data Mart deidentified database between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2020 to apply synthetic controls. The study included cancer patients between the ages of 18 and 64 with at least six months continuous enrollment.
The researchers reported medical cannabis dispensary openings were associated with significant reductions in all opioid outcomes: −41.07 per 10,000 prescriptions. Recreational dispensary openings were also associated with reductions, in opioid outcomes, albeit smaller (−20.63 per 10 000).
Patients with lower levels of pain were more likely than others to switch from opioids to cannabis. Or, prescribing behavior may have changed after cannabis became available.
The results suggest that cannabis may be able to help patients with cancer manage pain in a similar way, regardless of their age, gender, race, and ethnicity.
Researchers concluded that:
This study found that cannabis can be used to treat cancer-related chronic pain instead of opioids. Further research is required to directly observe cannabis usage in order to assess the effectiveness of cannabis for treating cancer-related symptoms.
This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the program. has been published The JAMA Health Forum article adds new evidence that cannabis could potentially be an alternative to opioid medications. This includes a relatively recent Australian study which indicates the co-use medical cannabis can reduce the prescribed opioid usage.