According to a recent poll, eight out of 10 marijuana consumers use the drug at least partly as an alternate to prescription medications.
NuggMD’s survey of cannabis patients, exclusively shared with MEDCAN24 asked a single question: Do you substitute prescription drugs for cannabis?
Of the respondents who answered, 79.6 % said that, yes, they do use marijuana to replace pharmaceuticals. Only 20.4% did not.
Andrew Graham, NuggMD’s head of communication, said to MEDCAN24 that pharmaceutical companies are aware that cannabis is a substitute for their drugs. The federal prohibition of cannabis locks in demand for addictive and fatal drugs, by denying millions of Americans legal access to it.
He said that the latest poll showed the substitute effect could be much higher than what the pharmaceutical industry believes. The study estimates that approximately 40 million Americans substitute prescription drugs with cannabis. This costs Big Pharma billions of dollars in annual lost profits.
“I want Big Pharma’s to take a look at this information and to decide that they will spend even more resources to fight against cannabis. The more they protest against cannabis the more our movement grows. “They are so unpopular,” Graham continued.
A majority of the respondents to the sample survey did not have a medical cannabis card from their state, which indicates that the effect is not limited to the patients who are registered.
Meanwhile, in May a study on marijuana legalization’s effect on workers’ compensation finds that while the policy change is associated with a “gradual increase” in workers’ comp claims, the average cost per claim in fact fell after the reform—as did patient use of prescription drugs, especially opioids and other painkillers.
According to other research, medical cannabis is “comparatively more efficient than prescription drugs” in treating chronic pain. This was after a period of three months. Many patients also reduced the amount of opioid painkillers they were taking while using marijuana.
A recent federally funded study, for example, shows that legalization of marijuana in U.S. states is associated with 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.
Recent research also shows a decrease in opioid fatal overdoses when marijuana is legalized in adult-only jurisdictions. 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. According to the authors, recreational marijuana legalization is “associated with an approximate 3.5 death reduction per 100,000 persons.”
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 the reduction of opioid consumption.”
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. A majority of those patients said that they substituted cannabis for opioid painkillers.
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.
Recent research has also shown that cannabis can be a good alternative to opioids for pain relief.
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.
A separate study found that more patients (57%) with chronic pain from musculoskeletal conditions said marijuana was more effective than analgesics, and 40 percent had reduced their painkiller use since using cannabis.
A recent Minnesota government report on chronic-pain patients who are enrolled in its medical marijuana program stated that the participants were “finding a noticeable difference in pain relief” after only a few weeks of cannabis use.
Financial analysts have said that the legalization of marijuana will pose a significant threat to the alcohol sector. They cite survey data which shows that more and more people use cannabis to replace alcoholic drinks such as beer or wine.
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