This study followed patients enrolled voluntarily in the New Mexico medical cannabis program, and found they significantly reduced their utilization of scheduled prescription medications following enrollment.
“All prescriptions for scheduled meds must be reported to the New Mexico Prescription Monitoring Program – with opiates and benzodiazepines being the two most common.
Based on these records, patients enrolled in the program reduced the monthly average number of prescriptions, types of prescriptions (drug classes), number of prescribers, and number of related pharmacy visits.
71% of cannabis program enrollees either ceased or reduced their use of scheduled prescriptions within 6 months of enrolling.
While other studies have looked at similar state-level outcomes, this study is the first to examine individual patients throughout their enrollment in the program and comparing those patients to a similar group who did not enroll.”
No wonder the drug companies and their allies in the federal government* poo-poo medical cannabis. It’s an ever more popular “outside of their box” competitor that’s cutting into business….
*Note: There is a revolving door between the FDA and the big pharmaceutical corporations, e.g., a number of top FDA staff – including Commissioners – have come from (and/or returned to) the industry.
We’ll leave it for you judge just how cozy a relationship this is….. …but again for those who say we still need to prove MC works… …this is far from all the proof there is, yet even on its own shows how patients choosing between treatment modalities are voting with their wallets. 71% of them seemed to know relatively early on in their treatment that where possible they preferred cannabis over big company FDA approved drugs…
…and that makes a lot of sense to us…..
…more in the article…
#MMJ #Research #RxDrugs #Prescription #UTpol #TRUCE
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See full article – Medical Cannabis and Reduced Prescription Use
