ArticleAnnals of internal medicine2023
Effects of U.S. State Medical Cannabis Laws on Treatment of Chronic Noncancer Pain.
Article in Annals of internal medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between state cannabis laws and opioid outcomes: A systematic review.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Pooled it
- The Impact of Medical Cannabis Laws on Cannabis and Opioid Use Disorder Treatment and Overdose-Related Health Care Utilization Among Adults With Chronic Noncancer Pain.The Milbank quarterly · 2025Article
- Cannabis Legalization and Opioid Use Disorder in Veterans Health Administration Patients.JAMA health forum · 2025Article
- The Combined Relationship of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Enactment and Medical Cannabis Laws with Chronic Pain-Related Healthcare Visits.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- Recreational Cannabis Laws and Fills of Pain Prescriptions in the Privately Insured.Cannabis (Albuquerque, N.M.) · 2025Article
- Target Trial Emulation for Evaluating Health Policy.Annals of internal medicine · 2024Article
- Annual trends in pain management modalities in patients with newly diagnosed autoimmune rheumatic diseases in the USA from 2007 to 2021: an administrative claims-based study.The Lancet. Rheumatology · 2024Article
- Characteristics of patients with non-cancer pain and long-term prescription opioid use who have used medical versus recreational marijuana.Journal of cannabis research · 2024Article
- Recreational and Medical Cannabis Legalization and Opioid Prescriptions and Mortality.JAMA health forum · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundState medical cannabis laws may lead patients with chronic noncancer pain to substitute cannabis in place of prescription opioid or clinical guideline-concordant nonopioid prescription pain medications or procedures.
objectiveTo assess effects of state medical cannabis laws on receipt of prescription opioids, nonopioid prescription pain medications, and procedures for chronic noncancer pain.
designUsing data from 12 states that implemented medical cannabis laws and 17 comparison states, augmented synthetic control analyses estimated laws' effects on receipt of chronic noncancer pain treatment, relative to predicted treatment receipt in the absence of the law.
settingUnited States, 2010 to 2022.
participants583 820 commercially insured adults with chronic noncancer pain. MEASUREMENTS: Proportion of patients receiving any opioid prescription, nonopioid prescription pain medication, or procedure for chronic noncancer pain; volume of each treatment type; and mean days' supply and mean morphine milligram equivalents per day of prescribed opioids, per patient in a given month.
resultsIn a given month during the first 3 years of law implementation, medical cannabis laws led to an average difference of 0.05 percentage points (95% CI, -0.12 to 0.21 percentage points), 0.05 percentage points (CI, -0.13 to 0.23 percentage points), and -0.17 percentage points (CI, -0.42 to 0.08 percentage points) in the proportion of patients receiving any opioid prescription, any nonopioid prescription pain medication, or any chronic pain procedure, respectively, relative to what we predict would have happened in that month had the law not been implemented. LIMITATIONS: This study used a strong nonexperimental design but relies on untestable assumptions involving parallel counterfactual trends. Statistical power is limited by the finite number of states. Results may not generalize to noncommercially insured populations.
conclusionThis study did not identify important effects of medical cannabis laws on receipt of opioid or nonopioid pain treatment among patients with chronic noncancer pain. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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Registered trials
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