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home / 世界杯决赛2022

pot legalization has reduced demand for codeine prescriptions in u.s.: study

it used data from the federal drug enforcement administration which tracks controlled substances across the u.s

by postmedia news

feb 5 2023
read time 1 minute read
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states that legalized marijuana have seen a significant reduction in demand for pharmacy-based codeine prescriptions, according to a new study.
researchers looking at states where weed was legal concluded there was a 26% reduction in “pharmacy-based distribution of codeine” and after four years, many states experienced as much as a 37% drop, according to clevescene.com.

published jan. 19 in the journal of health economics, the study was based on data from the drug enforcement administration, which tracks controlled substancs across the u.s. the study looked at 11 states that legalized adult-use cannabis between 2010 and 2019.

codeine is an opioid, and prescription opioids contribute to more than 10,000 overdose deaths annually in america. but codeine is just one such opioid prescription, and the study found that marijuana legalization had “minimal impact on distribution of other opioids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine in any setting.”

as well, marijuana legalization did not have an impact on hospital-distribution of codeine.
researchers speculated that the pharmacy-based reduction can be attributed to the fact codeine is a weaker opioid with a high potential for addiction.

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since cannabis, like codeine, can help reduce chronic pain, legalization may have shifted consumers away from opioid misuse in favour of marijuana, researches concluded.

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“a reduction in the misuse of opioids will save lives,” said shyam raman, a doctoral candidate at cornell university and lead author of the study, according to clevescene.com. “our research indicated that recreational cannabis laws substantially reduce distribution of codeine to pharmacies, an overlooked potential benefit to legalizing recreational cannabis use.”
harm reduction journal published a similar study in 2019 that was based on a survey of 2,000 canadian adult-use marijuana users.
but this study is unique since it uses dea data instead of survey respondents. the authors think this is the first study of its kind to use the dea data in this way.
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