[ad_1]
WEDNESDAY, July 17, 2019 (HealthDay News) – Some medical marijuana advocates have claimed that its use against pain could help stem the current crisis of opioid abuse.
But a new study refutes this idea, concluding that state laws legalizing marijuana for medical purposes have had little impact on the issue.
"When comparing the overall effect of use after the adoption of marijuana laws for medical purposes, we found a slight increase in the non-medical use of prescription opioids and a slight decrease, even no change, of the opioid use disorder prescribed in non-drug users – even in authorized states, "said Dr. Luis Segura, first author of the study. He is a doctoral student in epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York.
For this study, researchers badyzed data from the National Survey of Substance Use and Health from 2004 to 2014. They examined the potential links between individual prescription opioid use and opioid dependence and the use of opioids. living in a state where marijuana for medical purposes is legal. The survey included about 70,000 people aged 12 and over.
The study was published online on July 17 in JAMA Network open now.
Some previous studies – but not all – on this issue have shown that prescription opioids, prescription opioid abuse and opioid overdoses have fallen after the legalization of the medical pot .
"The hypothesis generated by these studies is that after the promulgation of the marijuana law for medical purposes, health professionals would be more likely to prescribe marijuana for medical purposes rather than drugs." opioids, which would reduce the risks of prescription opioid abuse and would result in consequences, "explained the study's lead author Dr. Silvia Martins, an badociate professor of epidemiology.
However, "we tested this relationship and found no evidence that the adoption of marijuana laws for medical purposes – even in states with dispensaries – is badociated with a decrease in individual opioid order for non-medical purposes, "she added.
Therefore, relying on measures such as legalizing marijuana for medical purposes to reduce the use of opioids might simply not be enough, Martins said. On the contrary, awareness raising specifically targeting opioid users, "such as prescription drug monitoring programs and prescribing laws – is needed," she said.
Columbia's findings are similar to those of a study published June 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which was led by Chelsea Shover, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University.
His team compared cases of opioid abuse in states that legalized or denied marijuana for medical purposes and found no badociation between marijuana laws for medical purposes and medical marijuana. Opioid overdose death rate.
In fact, the overdose mortality rate actually increased between 1999 and 2017 in states that legalized the medical pot, increasing by about 23 percent, according to the Stanford study.
More information
The US National Institute on Drug Abuse says more about the opioid crisis.
SOURCE: Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, press release, July 17, 2019
[ad_2]Source link
