A new study out of Ohio finds that a large majority of medical marijuana patients in the state say cannabis has reduced their use of prescription opioid painkillers as well as other, illicit drugs.

The survey of approximately 3,500 people—which was sent to state medical marijuana patients and caregivers through the Ohio Department of Commerce as well as shared online through social media—found that 77.5 percent agreed that marijuana reduced their need to use prescription painkillers. As for illicit drugs, 26.8 percent of respondents reported a diminished need to use.

Meanwhile, only small percentages of people disagreed that marijuana reduced their need to use prescription painkillers (1.7 percent) or illegal drugs (1.9 percent).

“Our results and those of previous studies display encouraging results about the potential benefits of using marijuana to reduce the use of painkillers and other illegal drugs,” says the new report, published as a preprint this month by Ohio State University law school’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center. “A large majority of respondents agreed that using marijuana reduced their use of prescription painkillers.” Notably, those who used cannabis daily “were more likely to agree that using marijuana reduced their need to use prescription painkillers compared to those who used marijuana less than daily (daily = 80.54%, not daily = 70.14%),” wrote author Pete Leasure, a senior research associate at the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center.

Similar results were found regarding other illegal drug use. About 30.6 percent of daily cannabis users said marijuana reduced their need to use illicit drugs compared to about 17.5 percent of less-than-daily users. In the first report to come out of the annual survey by DEPC @OSU_Law of current and potential Ohio #medicalmarijuana patients, we found that a large majority agreed that using #marijuana reduced their use of prescription painkillers. Read report: https://t.co/MaXtc9K3Rd pic.twitter.com/NmvbhWLleM — Drug Enforcement and Policy Center at Ohio State (@OSULawDEPC) July 16, 2024 The study acknowledges that given the non-random sampling method used, the data “may not be representative of all marijuana users (medical or non-medical).” But it nevertheless considers the results to point toward certain policy changes aimed at reducing […]

Three Out Of Four Patients Say Medical Marijuana Reduces Their Use Of Opioids And Painkillers, Ohio Study Shows