Could cannabis help prevent prescription painkiller abuse? Medical marijuana 'reduces use of addictive opioid meds'

Could cannabis help prevent prescription painkiller abuse? Medical marijuana 'reduces use of addictive opioid meds' 

Medical marijuana reduces the use of prescription opioids in those patients battling chronic pain, experts revealed.

Patients using cannabis to control chronic pain reported a 64 per cent reduction in their use of traditional pain medications, a new study concluded.

The findings suggest that prescribing medical marijuana instead of painkillers, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, may help tackle the opioid epidemic that’s currently sweeping the US.

Deaths from misuse and abuse of prescription opioids reached 19,000 in 2014 - the highest figure on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Senior study author Dr Daniel Clauw, of the University of Michigan, said: ‘We are learning that the higher the dose of opioids people are taking, the higher the risk of death from overdose.

‘The magnitude of reduction in our study is significant enough to affect an individual’s risk of accidental death from overdose.’

The team of University of Michigan scientists surveyed 185 patients from a medical marijuana dispensary.

The surveys were conducted between November 2013 and February 2015.

The scientists originally sought to determine if cannabis use was more effective for sufferers of severe centralized chronic pain.