Statistics reveal why big pharma is battling against medical marijuana legalization

The debates on the issue of marijuana prohibition are often built upon assumption that big pharma is fighting legalization of cannabis. Underlies this assumption is marijuana’s ability to better alleviate certain human conditions without fatal side-effects than prescription drugs. The likelihood that people will prefer medical marijuana over prescription drugs is what driving big pharma’s fierce opposition to the weed.

In the backdrop of this expectation that marijuana one day would replace big pharma’s drugs; there also exists preliminary evidence to suggest that medical marijuana has lowered the use of prescription drugs. But it is only recently that research has conclusively demonstrated a link that shows use of medical marijuana is associated with lower number of drug prescriptions.

A new study, published in the journal Health Affairs, has successfully shown a missing link in the casual chain running from medical marijuana to falling overdoses. Researchers - Ashley and W. David Bradford - from University of Georgia using data of all prescription drugs paid for under Medicare Part D from 2010 to 2013 found prescriptions for painkillers and other classes of drugs fell sharply in 17 states where marijuana law is in place.

The statistics reveal a significant drop in prescription drugs for conditions for which medical marijuana is most often approved under state laws. Comparing medical-marijuana states with the rest of states shows the average doctor prescribed 265 fewer doses of antidepressants each year, 486 fewer doses of seizure medication, 541 fewer anti-nausea doses and 562 fewer doses of anti-anxiety medication.

But a striking difference is observed in case of painkillers where the typical physician in a marijuana-state prescribed 1826 fewer doses in a given year.

Interestingly when the same analysis was ran for drug categories that pot is not recommended for such as blood thinners, anti-viral drugs and antibiotics - no change was observed in prescribing patterns after the passage of marijuana laws.

"This provides strong evidence that the observed shifts in prescribing patterns were in fact due to the passage of the medical marijuana laws," they write.

In a news release, lead author Ashley Bradford wrote, "The results suggest people are really using marijuana as medicine and not just using it for recreational purposes."

This drop in painkiller prescriptions validates big pharma’s long-held fears of losing hefty profits, obviously a serious cause of concern among them. These companies have long been at the forefront of opposition to marijuana reform are more likely to step up their opposition by  funding research by anti-pot academics and funneling dollars to groups, such as the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, that oppose marijuana legalization.

To the nightmare of pharmaceutical industry, Bradfords’ analysis didn’t end on this and they ran their analysis further to estimate cost savings to Medicare from the decreased prescribing. They found that about $165 million was saved in the 17 medical marijuana states in 2013.  In case all 50 states pass marijuana laws, the researchers calculated the estimated annual Medicare prescription savings would be nearly half a billion dollars.