In order to gather more evidence regarding the relationship between medical cannabis (marijuana) and opioid use, researchers set out to determine changes in the daily amount of opioid use among patients who were certified to use medical cannabis for intractable pain. This single-center study, published in The Annals of Pharmacotherapy evaluated opioid doses over a 6 month time period.
Daily milligram morphine equivalents (MME) were evaluated at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. A total of 77 patients were included in this retrospective cohort study.
A statistically significant average decrease of 32.5 mg morphine equivalents (MME) was seen at three months, and an average decrease of 39.1 mg morphine equivalents (MME) was seen at six months.
For those patients wishing to decrease their opioid use, and for the doctors who wish to assist them, these findings seem to indicate that greater consideration could be given to utilizing medical cannabis therapy.
