New York’s research into opioids, chronic pain and cannabis yields surprising results
06-Feb-23 05:07:08
Cannabis may significantly reduce a patient’s need for opioid-based medications in managing chronic pain, a new study – published in part by the Office of Cannabis Management – has found.
The observational study analyzed data of over 8,000 New Yorkers from 2017 – 2019 and saw a statistically significant reduction in prescription opioid doses among patients who were on long-term opioid treatment and used medical cannabis.
The research was put together by the NYS Department of Health, the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, and OCM, and published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association – which is among the most respected medical journals in the world.
“It’s a pretty big deal to have a paper in there,” said Daniela Vergara, an evolutionary biologist and genomicist who has published a multitude of cannabis research papers, and who had no affiliation with this research.
“I think it’s great news for cannabis,” added Vergara, who is also an emerging crop specialist on Cornell University’s Harvest New York Extension Team.
Here’s why this is significant:
From around 2000 to the early-2010s, prescription opioid painkillers drove an epidemic of drug overdoses in the US, with the hardest-hit areas being those with high physical disability rates (which is associated with chronic pain). Since then, a second phase of the epidemic has been exacerbated by illicit opioids, such as heroin and fentanyl, especially in the northeast, and nearly three-quarters of the roughly 92,000 drug overdose deaths in 2020 involved an opioid.
In 2021, opioid-involved overdose deaths were the highest in US history – with more than 80,000 deaths.
Since NY’s medical marijuana program began, “we’ve heard anecdotal evidence from patients, caregivers and health care providers suggesting that medical cannabis can reduce the amount of opioids patients take to manage pain,” said Nicole Quackenbush, the study’s co-author and OCM’s director of health and safety.
SOURCE & CREDIT: NEWYORKUP.COM