Legalizing Cannabis Reduces Opioid Prescriptions, Study Shows

States that have legalized adult-use marijuana have a significant reduction pharmacy-based codeine prescriptions a new study shows. The study was published January 19 in the Journal of Health Economics.

Using data from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration which tracks controlled substances across the U.S., the study looked at 11 states that had legalized adult-use cannabis between 2010 and 2019.