people are really using marijuana as medicine and not just using it for recreational purposes," said a coauthor of the study.

 

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Legalizing Medical Marijuana Decreases Use of Opiates: Study

  • Marijuana plants in an indoor cultivation in Montevideo, Uruguay December 6, 2013.

    Marijuana plants in an indoor cultivation in Montevideo, Uruguay December 6, 2013. | Photo: Reuters

Published 7 July 2016
Opinion

“The results suggest people are really using marijuana as medicine and not just using it for recreational purposes," said a coauthor of the study.

 

States in the U.S. that have legalized medical marijuana saw significantly fewer prescriptions for painkillers and other medications, according to study released on Wednesday.

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If every state in the U.S. legalized medical marijuana, more than $US468 million would be saved per year by the federal Medicare program, which provides access to pharmaceuticals for disabled Americans and those over the age of 65.

According to the study, Medicare saved more than $US165 million in 2013 on prescription drugs in the District of Columbia and the 17 states that allow medical marijuana, which is used to treat conditions such as chronic pain, decreasing demanding for potentially addictive opiates and other pain killers.

“When states turned on medical marijuana laws, we did see a rather substantial turn away from FDA-approved medicine,” said one of the authors of the report, W. David Bradford from the University of Georgia.

The study analyzed Medicare data from 2010 to 2013 for drugs used to treat nine ailments such as pain, depression and nausea, where medical marijuana could be used an alternative treatment. Apart from glaucoma, doctors gave fewer prescriptions for all nine aliments after medical marijuana laws were implemented.

Annual prescriptions for pain medication decreased by more than 11 percent. “The results show that marijuana might be beneficial with diverting people away from opioids,” Bradford said.

Bradford said the results are important as it gives policymakers another tool to evaluate the legalization of medical marijuana. “The results," he said, "suggest people are really using marijuana as medicine and not just using it for recreational purposes.”

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