A newly published study found that among drug users who experience chronic pain, daily cannabis use was linked to a higher likelihood of quitting the use of opioids—especially among men.
“Participants reporting daily cannabis use exhibited higher rates of cessation compared to less frequent users or non-users,” says the report, published last week in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review.
When results were split by sex, researchers observed that “daily cannabis use was significantly associated with increased rates of opioid cessation among males.” Those differences “suggest potential differences in cannabis use behavior and effects,” the paper says, and underscores the need for further research.
The report was authored by an eight-person research team from the British Columbia Centre on Substance Abuse as well as the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University.
Between June 2014 and May 2022, the team examined data from 1,242 people who used drugs (PWUD) while also living with chronic pain. Of those, 764 experienced “a cessation event.”
Daily cannabis use, it says, “was positively associated with opioid cessation.”
“Our findings add to the growing evidence supporting the potential benefits of cannabis use among PWUD, underlining the need for further research,” authors wrote.
Indeed, a growing body of research to date has examined the associations between cannabis reform and opioids, often finding reductions in opioid use in areas that legalize marijuana for medical or adult use.
A recent federally funded study in the U.S., for example, found an association between state-level marijuana legalization and 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.That research, which was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, looked at national records of opioid prescription fills as well as prescribing of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and other pain medications. Analysis showed that prescription opioid fills dropped following legalization in U.S. while prescribing of non-opioid pain medications saw “marginally significant increases.”A study published late last year, for example, found that legalizing medical cannabis appeared to significantly reduce monetary payments from opioid manufacturers to doctors who […]
Using Marijuana Every Day Could Help People Quit Opioids, New Study Indicates
