The Impact of Medical Cannabis Laws on Cannabis and Opioid Use Disorder Treatment and Overdose-Related Health Care Utilization Among Adults With Chronic Noncancer Pain.

UNLABELLED

Policy Points Among patients with chronic noncancer pain, state medical cannabis laws did not impact health care use for opioid use disorder. There were no changes in health care use for opioid overdose attributable to medical cannabis laws. Medical cannabis laws do not appear to lead to reductions in adverse opioid-related outcomes.

CONTEXT

State medical cannabis laws, currently in place in 39 states and Washington, DC, provide an avenue for therapeutic use of cannabis to manage chronic noncancer pain stemming from conditions such as arthritis and low back pain. These laws may also influence cannabis and opioid addiction and overdose, for example, if people substitute cannabis in place of opioids to manage pain. No studies, to our knowledge, have examined how state medical cannabis laws influence health care use related to addiction to or overdose from cannabis or opioids among people with chronic noncancer pain.

METHODS

We used a difference-in-differences design and augmented synthetic control analyses comparing changes in cannabis use disorder (CUD) and opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment and cannabis and opioid overdose-related health care use before and after medical cannabis law implementation among Medicare beneficiaries with chronic noncancer pain in seven states (Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania) relative to changes in outcomes over the same period in 17 comparison states (Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming) without medical cannabis laws.

FINDINGS

State medical cannabis laws had an estimated average effect of less than 0.005 percentage points on the overall proportion of patients receiving any CUD or OUD treatment, less than 0.009 percentage points on the proportion of patients newly initiating CUD or OUD treatment, and less than 0.0005 percentage points on the proportion of patients receiving overdose-related health care for cannabis or opioid overdoses (p > 0.05 for all findings).

CONCLUSIONS

Our study did not identify effects of state medical cannabis laws on health care use related to CUD or OUD treatment or overdose among Medicare beneficiaries younger than age 65 years with chronic noncancer pain.