Medical marijuana could be a viable alternative to opioid painkillers for people dealing with arthritis or chronic back pain, two new studies show. Many patients prescribed opioids for their chronic pain wound up taking fewer painkillers — or stopping them altogether — after doctors certified them for medical cannabis, said lead researcher Dr. Asif Ilyas,
Medical marijuana could be a viable alternative to opioid painkillers for people dealing with arthritis or chronic back pain, two new studies show.
Many patients prescribed opioids for their chronic pain wound up taking fewer painkillers — or stopping them altogether — after doctors certified them for medical cannabis, said lead researcher Dr. Asif Ilyas, an orthopedic surgeon at Rothman Orthopaedic Institute in Philadelphia.
“We found broadly a significant reduction in opioid use when they started using medical cannabis,” Ilyas said. “We saw a decrease in approximately 40% of opioid use after starting medical cannabis, with 37% to 38% of patients completely discontinuing opioid use altogether.”
If validated, these results indicate that medical marijuana could be a potential means of combating America’s opioid epidemic, which has been driven in part by prescription painkillers, said Dr. Stuart Fischer, an orthopedic surgeon with Summit Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in Summit, N.J.
