A new study from the Ohio Department of Commerce finds that a large majority of medical marijuana patients in the state say cannabis has reduced their use of prescription opioid painkillers as well as other illicit drugs.
The survey found that 77.5% agreed that marijuana reduced their need to use prescription painkillers. As for illicit drugs, 26.8% of respondents reported a diminished need to use. Meanwhile, only small percentages of people disagreed that marijuana reduced their need to use prescription painkillers (1.7%) or illegal drugs (1.9%).
Notably, those who used cannabis daily “were more likely to agree that using marijuana reduced their need to use prescription painkillers compared to those who used marijuana less than daily (daily = 80.54%, not daily = 70.14%),” wrote author Pete Leasure, a senior research associate at the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center. Similar results were found regarding other illegal drug use. About 30.6 % of daily cannabis users said marijuana reduced their need to use illicit drugs compared to about 17.5% of less-than-daily users.
