According to University of New Mexico researchers, medical marijuana being legally available could potentially help stop the use of opioids in chronic pain patients.
Jacob Miguel Vigil, an associate psychology professor, aided by assistant economics professor Sarah See Stith, published their study in the journal PLOS ONE recently.
According to their research, the data found that there is a strong connection between New Mexico’s medicinal marijuana program enrollment with the reduced use of opioids.
As part of the study, 37 habitual opiod using chronic pain patients who had enrolled in the medical marijuana program in New Mexico between the years of 2010 and 2015. They compared the data to 29 patients with similar health conditions who did not enroll.
As of October 2017, almost 45,000 people are enrolled in New Mexico’s medical marijuana program.
