Submitted by the NYS DOH
The New York State Department of Health today announced that its latest multi-agency study detailing the association of receiving medical cannabis for 30 days or longer with a reduction in prescription opioid dosages has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open.
In this study, department researchers and colleagues from the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy and the New York State Office of Cannabis Management analyzed data for more than eight-thousand adult New Yorkers from 2017-2019 and concluded that receiving 30 days or more of medical cannabis for chronic pain is associated with a reduction in dosages of prescription opioids among patients who were on long-term opioid treatment.
The study found that those who were on higher baseline dosages of prescription opioids, when they started receiving medical cannabis, saw a larger reduction in prescription dosages after eight months, upwards of 51 percent for individuals on the highest baseline dosages of prescription opioids.
To read the full research article, visit https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2800813?resultClick=1. For more information about the New York State Office of Cannabis Management medical cannabis program, visit cannabis.ny.gov.