The study, which compared the probability of non-medical opioid use on days when cannabis was used with days when cannabis was not used, included 13,271 days of observation among 211 participants from the greater New York area. The participants were predominantly male, urban, unemployed, unmarried, and had a high prevalence of substance misuse and pain.

"Our results suggest that cannabis seldom serves as a substitute for non-medical opioids among opioid-using adults, even among those who report experiencing moderate or more severe pain," said Deborah Hasin, professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School and a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. "In other words, our study suggests that cannabis is not an effective way to limit non-medical opioid use."

In 2017, there were over 2 million people with opioid use disorder and over 70,000 opioid-related deaths in the US. Illicit opioid use, including non-medical use of prescription opioids, synthetic opioids and heroin, are the primary cause of overdose deaths among U.S. adults. Understanding how cannabis may change non-medical opioid use is critical to informing discussions around cannabis-based interventions for addressing the opioid crisis.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

1. Lauren R. Gorfinkel, Malki Stohl, Eliana Greenstein, Efrat Aharonovich, Mark Olfson, Deborah Hasin. Is Cannabis being used as a substitute for non‐medical opioids by adults with problem substance use in the United States? A within‐person analysis. Addiction, 2020; DOI: 10.1111/add.15228