The New York State Department of Health announced that its latest multi-agency study detailing the association of receiving medical cannabis for 30 days or longer with a reduction in prescription opioid dosages has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open.
The results of the peer-reviewed study, Changes in Prescribed Opioid Dosages Among Patients Receiving Medical Cannabis for Chronic Pain, New York State, 2017-2019, in combination with existing evidence, show that managing chronic pain with medical cannabis may reduce the opioid burden. This may, in turn, reduce the risk of illicit use and overdose for patients on long-term opioid therapy.
“Medical cannabis is increasingly being used as a treatment in pain management and this peer-reviewed study is further evidence that medical cannabis has the potential to reduce the amount of opioid-based medications needed to treat chronic pain.” Acting Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said. “I applaud the work done by members of the Department, as well as the Office of Cannabis Management and CUNY. These findings have the potential to further inform health providers and policymakers here in New York as well as in other jurisdictions where medical cannabis is not yet legalized or used to its fullest potential.”
In this study, published in the JAMA Network Open’s January 30 issue, Department researchers and colleagues from the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy and the New York State Office of Cannabis Management analyzed data for more than eight thousand adult New Yorkers from 2017-2019 and concluded that receiving 30 days or more of medical cannabis for chronic pain is associated with a reduction in dosages of prescription opioids among patients who were on long-term opioid treatment.
The study found that those who were on higher baseline dosages of prescription opioids (when they started receiving medical cannabis) saw a larger reduction in prescription dosages after eight months, upwards of 51 percent for individuals on the highest baseline dosages of prescription opioids.
