Medical Marijuana Linked To Reduced Prescription Drug Use

The legalization of marijuana has been found to have a positive impact on the decline in prescription drug use among the elderly and disabled people, according to a study published in Health Affairs.

Researchers found that the savings from lower prescription drug use in areas where it was legal to use medical marijuana was approximately $165.2 million over the full year. The results suggested that if all states had legalized the use of medical marijuana, the United States would have an approximate over all savings of $468 million to Medicare.

Medical News Today wrote that in states where the use marijuana remains to be illegal, the substance is classed as a "Schedule 1" drug under the Controlled Substance Act. This means that the federal government classifies the drug to have a high abuse potential, no medical benefits, and major concerns.

It was also reported that the U.S. FDA have not approved marijuana for health problems because of insufficient evidence proving that the substance is safe and effective. States that have legalized the drug for such use have done so based on decisions by voters and legislators.

Meanwhile, study co-author W. David Bradford said, nobody has tried to assess both sides of the medical marijuana argument since California became the first U.S. state to legalize the use of the substance in 1996. This became a motivation for Bradford and his colleagues to set out and determine how legalizing medical marijuana has affected prescription drug use, which serves as an indicator of whether people really are using the drug for medical purposes.

For the study, the team analyzed information on prescription filled by Medicare part D enrollees between the years 2010 and 2013. They looked at specific medical conditions the prescription were for and determined those where marijuana could be considered an alternative treatment. These conditions were depression, anxiety, nausea, pain, and glaucoma.

Among the conditions, researchers chose to focus on glaucoma because though marijuana does not have the property to decrease eye pressure caused by the disease, it only last an hour. With this kind of disorder, they expected marijuana laws, resulting to demand stimulation, to send more people to see the doctor for relief. News-medical.net reported that because taking marijuana once every hour is unrealistic, researchers predicted to see the number of daily doses for glaucoma medication to rise.

The team found evidence that, in some cases, the legalization of medical marijuana in the U.S. may have encouraged more people to seek treatment.

"It turns out that glaucoma is one of the most Googled searches linked to marijuana, right after pain," said David Bradford, a health economist at the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs and co-author of the study. "No doctor is going to let [a glaucoma] patient walk out without being treated."

The researchers say the found indication that in the United States where the use of medical marijuana is legal, people use it more to treat their ailments, and not just for recreation. However, Bradford is still has concerns about the legalization of medical marijuana, especially to how patients get the drug, mintpressnews.com

"Doctors can recommend marijuana and in some states can sign a form to help you get a card, but at that point you go out of the medical system and into the dispensaries," he says.