Veterans Suffering From Chronic Pain Use Fewer Opioids Following Cannabis Legalization

Chronic pain patients enrolled in the Veterans’ Health Administration consume fewer opioids following the enactment of statewide marijuana access laws, according to data published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

A team of Columbia University investigators reviewed ten years of VHA health records to identify trends in opioid prescribing patterns in states with and without marijuana legalization.

Consistent with the findings of prior studies, researchers reported that both medical cannabis access laws and adult-use laws are associated with reductions in opioid prescriptions among veterans diagnosed with chronic pain. Specifically, the passage of adult-use cannabis legalization laws is associated with marked reductions in high-dose opioid prescribing and opioid/benzodiazepine co-prescribing. Reductions were most robust among patients ages 65 to 75 years old.

The study’s authors concluded, “Greater legal cannabis access may be associated with modest reductions in opioid prescriptions among patients with chronic pain, potentially reflecting changes in patient and clinician treatment decisions related to pain management.”

Separate studies have identified associations between state-level marijuana legalization laws and declines in opioid-related overdoses, as well as reductions in patients’ use of other prescription medications, like benzodiazepines.

Data published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that nearly one in three patients with chronic pain use cannabis as an analgesic agent and many of those who do substitute it in place of opioids.