Medical Marijuana Fewer Deaths: States with Marijuana Laws Have Lesser Opioid Death Rates

Medical Marijuana fewer deaths - A newly published academic paper revealed that states that do not have medical marijuana laws have 25 percent more prescription drug overdose deaths compared to the states with regulations.

On Monday, a new research termed as Medical Marijuana Fewer Deaths which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) International Medicine, declared that states with medical marijuana laws have 25% lower rates of anticipated opioid-related deaths than states that do not have such laws, TIME reported.

Analysts of the Medical Marijuana fewer deaths studied the mortality rates from opioids between 1999 and 2010 and discovered that the 13 states that allowed medical marijuana during the time had lower opioid death rates. The finding lead researchers to a hypothesis that patients suffering from chronic pain probably switched from the heavy drugs to marijuana, due to the fact that cannabinoids in marijuana have similar effects to the brain.

According to other medical marijuana fewer deaths reports, approximately 60% of the total opioid deaths occur among individuals with legitimate prescriptions, although abuse is also a problem. "Among people who use opioids illicitly, a relatively high proportion of them also use marijuana," study author Dr. Marcus Bachhuber of the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, said.

And although the medical marijuana fewer deaths study results seem to suggest that the availability of marijuana possibly attracts individuals away from prescription drugs, analysts warns against drawing that conclusion too definitely. Some factors inherent to each state like attitudes about health could probably define the link between marijuana laws and overdose deaths, the Washington Post has learned.

Researchers also did not find a significant link between the policies targeting painkiller abuse - like authorizing pharmacists to ask for patient ID before dispensing medication - and the declined in overdose rates.

Furthermore, the medical marijuana fewer deaths study reportedly failed to account racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, psychiatric and medical diversity among states.