Summary:

- A federally funded study found that opioid prescriptions have dropped in states that have legalized marijuana, suggesting that some pain patients may prefer using cannabis over opioids.
- The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, analyzed data from 2011 to 2019 and found that opioid prescriptions decreased by 5.8% in states that had legalized marijuana for medical use and by 6.9% in states that had legalized it for recreational use.
- The findings indicate that the availability of legal marijuana may be leading some patients to choose cannabis over opioids for pain management, potentially reducing the risks associated with opioid use, such as addiction and overdose.