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Recreational cannabis and opioid distribution
Shyam Raman1, Johanna Catherine Maclean2, W David Bradford3
1Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.
Health Economics
|January 18, 2023
Summary
Recreational cannabis laws (RCLs) were associated with reduced dispensing of codeine, a prescription opioid. This finding is promising for public health, potentially indicating a substitution effect for pain management.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Health Economics
- Pharmacology
Background:
- Chronic pain management often involves prescription opioids.
- Cannabis is being explored as an alternative to opioids.
- Existing research on recreational cannabis laws' (RCLs) impact on opioid prescriptions is limited in scope.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the impact of RCLs on prescription opioid dispensing across all payers and endpoints.
- To adjust for other opioid-related policies in the analysis.
- To model the effects of RCLs on different types of opioids separately.
Main Methods:
- Two-way fixed-effects regression analysis.
- Utilized data from eleven U.S. states that adopted RCLs between 2010 and 2019.
- Examined prescription opioid dispensing patterns, including codeine, across all payers.
Main Results:
- Recreational cannabis laws were found to reduce the dispensing of codeine at retail pharmacies.
- Codeine is frequently misused among prescription opioids.
- The study controlled for opioid prescribing limits and other relevant policies.
Conclusions:
- RCLs may lead to a decrease in codeine dispensing.
- This reduction in codeine dispensing could have positive public health implications.
- Cannabis may serve as a substitute for prescription opioids, particularly codeine.
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