DENVER – Opioid-related deaths have fallen by more than 6 percent in Colorado in the two years after the state started selling recreational marijuana, according to new research published in November’s edition of the American Journal of Public Health.
The researchers who conducted the study found the 6.5-percent reduction represented “a reversal of” a 14-year increasing trend in opioid-related deaths in Colorado since 2000.
RELATED: Medical Marijuana Patients Report Reduction in Use of Prescription Drugs
But they stressed in the report that further research is needed in order to make sure the trends could be seen beyond Colorado, as there aren’t any other states that had a similar timeframe for legalization that could be studied.
The use of marijuana as an alternative to opioids, or as a recovery tool for addicts, has been much-discussed over the past year, as more states have legalized either medical or recreational cannabis, and as the Trump administration fights the notion that marijuana could be a helpful alternative medicine.
