Annals of Internal MedicineEffects of US State Medical Cannabis Laws on Treatment of Chronic Noncancer Pain

A study was conducted with data from 12 states that implemented medical cannabis laws and 17 comparison states.

The impact of state medical cannabis laws on the prescription patterns for chronic noncancer pain treatment has been a topic of intense interest, particularly in the wake of the opioid crisis. This article dives deep into the implications and explores the various perspectives that revolve around it.

Key Points:

• The population included 583,820 commercially insured adults with chronic noncancer pain.
• The study assessed the laws’ impact on the treatment received for chronic noncancer pain in the period from 2010 to 2022.
• Measurements taken included the proportion of patients receiving any opioid prescription, nonopioid prescription pain medication, or procedure for chronic noncancer pain; volume of each treatment type; and mean days’ supply and mean morphine milligram equivalents per day of prescribed opioids, per patient in a given month.

Additional Points:

• In the first three years of law implementation, the laws led to small changes in the proportion of patients receiving any opioid prescription, any nonopioid prescription pain medication, or any chronic pain procedure.
• The study does not fully generalize to noncommercially insured populations, and its results are limited by the finite number of states involved and the design’s reliance on untestable assumptions about parallel counterfactual trends.

Conclusion:

• The study found no significant effects of medical cannabis laws on the receipt of opioid or nonopioid pain treatment among patients with chronic noncancer pain.

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Did You Know?
The CDC reported that in 2019, nearly 50,000 people in the United States died from opioid-related overdoses.