Can Medical Marijuana Replace Prescription Opioids? Pain Patients Call for a Hard Look at the Evidence

Blake Dodge | 10/25/19

With more doctors and politicians pushing medical marijuana in favor of prescription opioids, patients are calling for a hard look at the evidence.

For almost every study that demonstrates marijuana and cannabidiol can provide relief to certain types of pain patients, another shows that these drugs perform even worse than placebos, according to a literature review by the Center for Pain Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UCSD).

That presents a problem for people with legitimately painful conditions, according to Nita Ghei, director of policy editing for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. More and more opioid-wary doctors are placing them on less effective drugs like marijuana—when their previous course of treatment may have been working fine.

Can Medical Marijuana Replace Prescription Opioids? Pain Patients Call for a Hard Look at the Evidence