Recreational cannabis reduces demand for prescription drugs – study

New research shows that legalisation of recreational cannabis in the US has reduced demand for prescribed pain and psychiatric medications.

According to analysis by researchers at Cornell University, the increasing legalisation of recreational cannabis has reduced demand for costly prescription drugs used to treat pain and mental health conditions, through state Medicaid programmes.

When states legalise cannabis the volume of prescriptions within the drug classes that align with the medical indications for pain, depression, anxiety, sleep, psychosis and seizures significantly decline, the researchers found.

Most cannabis research has focused on the impact of medical cannabis on demand for prescription drugs or the impact of recreational use legalisation on opioid demand. 

This is among the first studies to focus on the impact of legal personal-use cannabis on a broad range of prescription drugs.

Shyam Raman, a doctoral student in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, and Indiana University doctoral student Ashley Bradford conducted the research, which is published in the journal Health Economics. 

Raman and Bradford based their study on an analysis of data retrieved from the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services in all 50 states from 2011 to 2019, a period that saw growth in the number of states permitting personal use of cannabis.

About 40 states have legalised medical cannabis that must be prescribed by a doctor and so far, around 20 states have legalised personal-use cannabis for all adults, although that number is likely to rise. 

In those states, Raman and Bradford found a meaningful change in the demand for drugs used to treat sleep and anxiety disorders, but no real impact on drugs used to treat nausea.

“These results have important implications,” Raman said. 

“The reductions in drug utilisation that we find could lead to significant cost savings for state Medicaid programs.

“The results also indicate an opportunity to reduce the harm that can come with the dangerous side effects associated with some prescription drugs.”

Raman and Bradford caution that recreational cannabis use is not itself without harm, with some studies associating high-THC strains accessed through the legacy market, with a potential triggering of anxiety and psychoses such as schizophrenia. 

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