The debate of the legalization of medical marijuana has been a hot topic for many years. Its proponents promise this will have positive benefits, but opponents fear potential risks.
As more states adopt medical marijuana programs, researchers continue to analyze and understand its effects on patients and society more broadly.
The new study coming from Ohio shows how cannabis use is exactly reforming pain control techniques and quite possibly guiding the use of other drugs.
The Ohio Medical Marijuana Survey. Patient Experiences Revealed
In April, 2024, the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center at The Ohio State University conducted an extensive survey of existing and prospective Ohio Medical Marijuana patients.
It was intended to determine if cannabis use directly impacted use of prescription painkillers or other illicit drugs among the participants. The current study adds to a small, yet rapidly growing base of research that is focused on the use of cannabis as a potential alternative to pain management.
About 3,500 people responded to the survey, which was disseminated though the Ohio Department of Commerce Newsletter and social media outlets in Ohio. While the sampling was definitely not random and therefore cannot be said to represent all Ohio marijuana users, it was really insightful in terms of gaining understanding of the experience of patients.
Participants were asked to answer two key statements:
- “Use of cannabis replaced my need for prescription pain killers for pain.”
- “Cannabis use has meant I have used less illegal drugs.”
For answers, researchers tallied those who agreed, disagreed, neither agreed nor disagreed, along with those that were “not applicable.” Cannabis use with a frequency base was also analyzed by the researchers, comparing daily users and those who used less.
The results were quite striking in terms of trend with respect to marijuana as a potential substitute for both prescription painkillers and these illicit drugs.
These findings are consistent with past studies showing potential medical marijuana help in an opioid crisis and bring down the levels of dependency on other substances.
Cannabis as Painkillers. A Promising Alternative?
Probably the most inimical result from the Ohio survey was the uniformity of opinion among the respondents to the effect that Marijuana use had allowed them to decrease their consumption of prescription painkillers.
A total of 77.55% agreed with this statement, while only 1.74% disagreed. The remainder either neither agreed nor disagreed (7.57%), or they found the question not applicable to the situation in their particular case (13.14%).
This trend was even more pronounced in the case of daily cannabis users. 80.54% of daily users of cannabis reported that they used it to reduce their needs for prescription painkillers, as opposed to a mere 70.14% of the non-daily users.
This suggests that increased frequency of cannabis use can be associated with a greater reduction of reliance on traditional pain medications.
The findings are particularly important given that the United States is on an opioid epidemic related to prescription painkillers, which are hugely addicting and have the potential to get to the overdose point very easily but good in the management of chronic pains.
If cannabis can provide a safer alternative for pain management, it could arguably be said that it would save lives and decrease some of this societal burdensomeness with respect to opioid addiction.
The researchers, however, caution that this study derives from self-reported data alone and by no means establishes a causal relationship between marijuana use and reduced consumption of painkillers.
Additional research, including random-controlled trials, would need to be conducted for such a statement be made.
However, such results yield at least minimum proof in touching the fact that most patients find marijuana to be a useful tool for their pain management needs, enabling them to get off of prescribed medications.
The Issue with Painkillers. How Cannabis Affects Illicit Drug Usage
While the impact on painkiller use was most much, the survey also revealed some other interesting trends regarding the effect that marijuana seems to have on the us of other illicit drugs.
In answer to the question regarding whether using marijuana had reduced their use of other illegal drugs, 26.78% agreed while only 1.9% disagreed. The majority of 64.63% found this question not applicable which likely is indicative of not using other illicit drugs.
In addition, daily cannabis users were more likely to report a reduction in other drug use. Among daily users, 30.55% – three in every ten – agreed that marijuana had reduced their use of other illegal drugs, compared with 17.54% of non-daily users.
This would imply that, in a number of cases, the drug serves as a complement to other illicit drugs and could therefore have tremendous implications for harm reduction and treatment of addiction. If marijuana can indeed help people curb the use of much more dangerous drugs, it poses the worst promise of actually being life-saving or even drastically lowering the respective social costs associated with the scourge of drugs.
However, it is necessary to interpret these results with caution.
The questions did not stipulate what substances the respondents might have reduced or terminated using, or for what reason. Moreover, the elevated “not applicable” percentage indicates that many might not have been, in fact, using some other drugs.
Implications for policy, health practice, and research
The results of this Ohio survey are very comparable to those from previous studies and underline the importance of medical marijuana in pain and drug policy.
As such implications are considered, balance must be strained between potential benefits and known risks and limitations of studies using extant methodologies.
There is several policy implications in the short run which are concerned to treat marijuana use among people on probation or parole with a history of opioid use.
If there are prohibitive policies for all probationers and parolees, offices for probation and parole should review such rules based upon the survey shown here. In this regard, researchers suggest having randomized controlled trials.
This could compare rates of substance abuse and other outcomes for people allowed vs. not allowed to use marijuana. Such studies might serve as valuable evidence to devise better and more humane policies.
These findings from the Ohio survey are among the first to illustrate advancements in the understanding of the potential impacts of medical cannabis.
They reveal that cannabis may be literally replacing prescription painkillers in many patients and possibly helps to curb illicit drug use.
Of course, these findings also point to the clear need for more complete experimental studies that will fully explain the implications of broad medical use of cannabis.
The green revolution in healthcare is only now getting off the ground, and studies like this help to plot a course for a new future in which relief from one’s pain no longer has to cost one’s ability to escape from it, in which drug policy is led by compassion rather than fear and shame.
