Study Links Medical Marijuana Dispensaries to Reduced Mortality From Opioid Overdose
During the past 2 decades, nearly half of U.S. states implemented policies that sanction marijuana use for medical purposes. Researchers have been hard put, however, to draw firm conclusions about the policies’ public health ramifications. Now, NIDA-supported researchers have found that providing legal and practical access to marijuana may have both positive and negative impacts.
Legalized medical marijuana dispensaries are associated with both positive and negative impacts on public health.
Economists Dr. David Powell and Dr. Rosalie Pacula at the RAND Corporation, in Santa Monica, California, and Dr. Mireille Jacobson at the University of California, Irvine (UC-I) studied three medical marijuana policies (see Recommended, Not Prescribed). They found that the policies, despite their common motivation, have had varied, and sometimes offsetting, indirect effects on substance use and related problems. The most striking finding was that legally protected marijuana dispensaries (LMDs) were associated with lower rates of dependence on prescription opioids, and deaths due to opioid overdose, than would have been expected based on prior trends. On the other side of the ledger, however, LMDs also were associated with higher rates of recreational marijuana use and increased potency of illegal marijuana.
