What impact can cannabis have on opioid use? This is what a recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated a link between medical cannabis and prescription opioid use. This study has the potential to help scientists, medical professionals, legislators, and the public better understand the benefits of replacing opioids with cannabis and the steps that can be taken to implement it.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data obtained from 204 chronic pain patients who were part of the New York State (NYS) medical cannabis program while also taking opioid for their pain management. goal of the study was to ascertain how medical cannabis impacted prescription opioid use, for which the participants had recently received their medical cannabis card. The participants were monitored over an 18-month period with data from the NYS being from September 2018 to July 2023, and data analysis of the 18-month study was conducted from February 2025 to July 2025. In the end, the researchers found that the participants demonstrated significant reductions in opioid use when using medical cannabis to manage their pain.
"Chronic pain and opioid addiction are two of the most pressing health challenges in the United States," said Dr. Deepika E. Slawek, M.D., M.S., who is an associate professor of general internal medicine at Montefiore Einstein and lead author of the study. "Our findings indicate that medical cannabis, when dispensed through a pharmacist-supervised system, can relieve chronic pain while also meaningfully reducing patients' reliance on prescription opioids. Supervised use of medical cannabis could be an important tool in combatting the opioid crisis."
What new insight into cannabis and opioid use will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: JAMA Internal Medicine, Marijuana Moment
