U.S. states that implemented medical marijuana laws appear to have lower overdose death rates from prescription painkillers and drugs such as heroin, a new study shows.
The authors examined ten states (Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Vermont) which enacted medical cannabis laws between 1999 and 2010 and compared them to other states. They estimate that these laws were linked to about 1,729 fewer deaths from drug overdose in 2010.
While they cannot fully explain this phenomenon, they say that marijuana and its pain-reducing effects could reduce the need of some people to use painkillers, thus reducing overdose rates.
Original research paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine on August 25, 2014.
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