New research sheds light on the impact of cannabis legalisation on prescription drug claims following their implementation in the US.
Approval of recreational and medical cannabis laws in most US states has allowed individuals to legally obtain cannabis to treat certain medical ailments that had typically been treated with prescription drugs.
A new study, published in the journal, Health Economics, reveals the impact that these laws have had on the use of traditional prescription medications.
Researchers analysed prescription drug claims reported by small and large group insurers from 2010–2019 for working-age individuals.
They found significant reductions in prescription drug claims per enrollee of $34–42 annually in the small group insurance market following recreational cannabis legalisation.
Net prescription drug claims in these markets were reduced by approximately 6% following recreational cannabis legalisation.
However, similar reductions in claims were not observed in large group insurance markets, and they did not find strong evidence of an effect of medical cannabis legalisation on prescription drug claims in either market.
Corresponding author, Rhet A. Smith, PhD, of the University of Texas at El Paso, commented: “We built off prior studies to examine whether declines in prescription drugs among publicly insured populations following cannabis legalisation extend to employed individuals.
“We posit the reduction in prescription drug claims in small group insurance markets and not in large group markets suggests important compositional differences across the two markets that may influence cannabis and prescription drug usage across these populations.”
Previous analysis by researchers at Cornell University also found that the legalisation of recreational cannabis had reduced demand for costly prescription drugs used to treat pain and mental health conditions, through state Medicaid programmes.
When states legalise cannabis the volume of prescriptions within the drug classes that align with the medical indications for pain, depression, anxiety, sleep, psychosis and seizures significantly decline, the researchers found.
The post Impact of US Cannabis Legalisation on Prescription Drug Claims — Study appeared first on Cannabis Health News.
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Author: News Editor
