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Study: Osteoarthritis Patients Reduce Their Opioid Use Following Use of Medical Cannabis

Philadelphia, PA: Osteoarthritis patients significantly decrease their daily opioid intake and experience improvements in their overall quality of life following the initiation of medical cannabis therapy, according to longitudinal data published in the journal Cureus.

Investigators affiliated with Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia evaluated opioid consumption patterns in a cohort of 40 patients with osteoarthritis during the six-months immediately prior to and immediately following their enrollment in the state's medical cannabis access program.

On average, subjects nearly halved their daily opioid intake by the end of the trial period. Nearly 40 percent of participants ceased using opioids altogether. Patients also reported reductions in pain and overall improvements in their quality of life.

Authors concluded: "Our findings indicate that providing access to MC [medical cannabis], helps patients with chronic pain due to OA [osteoarthritis] reduce their levels of opioid usage in addition to improving pain and QoL [quality of life]. Furthermore, a majority of patients did not feel intoxicated or high from MC, and of those who did, only a small percentage said it interfered with their daily activities. ... Our findings support the literature in that MC reduces the use of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain."

Separate findings published by the same team similarly reported that patients with chronic back pain reduce their daily opioid intake following their enrollment in the state's medical access program. That finding is consistent with those of dozens of other studies documenting patients' tapering of opioids and other prescription medications subsequent to their use of medical cannabis.

Full text of the study, "Medical cannabis use reduces opioid prescriptions in patients with osteoarthritis," appears in Cureus.

Treasury Report: Uptick in Total Number of Financial Institutions Banking with Licensed Marijuana Providers

Washington, DC: Over 700 banks and credit unions have filed paperwork with the US government acknowledging their relationships with licensed cannabis businesses, according to quarterly data provided by the US Treasury Department.

The total is an uptick from the first quarter of 2021, but it remains shy of the totals reported in the first quarter of 2020. In all, the agency identified 553 banks (about 11 percent of all US banks) and 202 credit unions (about 4 percent of all US credit unions) that are "actively providing banking services to marijuana-related businesses."

Federal law discourages banks and other financial institutions from maintaining relationships with marijuana businesses because the plant remains classified as a Schedule I controlled substance. On six occasions, members of the US House of Representatives have passed legislation, The SAFE Banking Act, to explicitly permit banks and other institutions to engage in relationships with marijuana businesses without running afoul of federal law. House members most recently did so last month, attaching the measure as an amendment to The America COMPETES Act of 2022. The Act is currently awaiting action by the US Senate.

According to survey data compiled earlier this year by Whitney Economics, over 70 percent of participating cannabis businesses said that the "lack of access to banking or investment capital" is their top challenge. By comparison, only 42 percent of respondents cited "state regulations" as the most significant burden facing the industry, and only 39 percent cited the "influence of the illicit market."

Arizona: Retail Marijuana Sales Top $1 Billion in 2021

Phoenix, AZ: Retail sales of cannabis products topped over $1.35 billion in 2021, according to data provided by the Arizona Department of Revenue.

Slightly more than half of those sales were generated from products sold by medical cannabis dispensaries, while nearly $600,000,000 was generated from the newly initiated adult-use market. Adult use sales first began in mid-January. By November, monthly sales of adult-use products exceeded those of medical cannabis.

Total tax revenues from marijuana in 2021 exceeded $200,000 million.

Since the establishment of the first adult-use retail markets in 2014, sales of marijuana products have generated more than $10 billion in new tax revenues, according to a recent analysis published by the Marijuana Policy Project.

Study: Frequent Cannabis Consumers Exhibit Short-Term Changes in Psychomotor Performance Following Marijuana Ingestion

Boulder, CO: Frequent cannabis consumers exhibit changes in psychomotor performance in the 60-minute period following their use of either marijuana flowers or concentrates, according to data published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.

A team of investigators affiliated with the University of Colorado, the University of Washington, and Tufts University in Boston assessed the influence of cannabis on psychomotor performance as measured by the DRUID mobile app. Prior studies have demonstrated DRUID to be more sensitive to marijuana-induced changes in performance than Field Sobriety Tests. Participants in the study were frequent users of cannabis and were instructed to inhale ad libitum high-potency cannabis flowers or concentrates. Subjects' performance after inhalation was measured against their individual baseline performance.

Researchers reported that subjects' changes in performance "peaked shortly after acute use and decreased over the next hour" – a finding that is consistent with prior research. Participants exhibited similar degrees of impairment regardless of whether they consumed flowers or concentrates. Changes in performance were most pronounced with respect to balance, reaction time, and in subjects' abilities to properly process multiple pieces of information at one time (divided attention).

Authors concluded, "This study demonstrated that regular cannabis users show a decrease in performance on the DRUID app immediately after cannabis ingestion but appear to ‘recover' almost back to baseline levels 1-hour post-use." They added: "At present, there is a great need for a well-supported brief and mobile method for determining acute cannabis-related impairment, but no such tool exists. Considerable further validation and development are needed to determine whether a testing battery like DRUID may have individual or other applications as a driving impairment test."

NORML has long acknowledged that acute cannabis intoxication can influence driving performance, particularly with respect to decreases in driving speed and changes in lateral control, and has opined that anyone inhaling cannabis "should refrain from driving for a period of several hours." More pronounced changes in driving performance are typically present when cannabis is consumed in combination with alcohol.

NORML has also expressed longstanding opposition to the imposition of either per se or zero-tolerant per se traffic safety limits for THC or its metabolites because their presence is not consistently associated with impairment of psychomotor performance. NORML has opined in favor of the use of performance testing technology as a more reliable indicator of cannabis-induced impairment.

Full text of the study, "Effects of high-potency cannabis on psychomotor performance in frequent cannabis users," appears in Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.

Study: Frequent Use of the Cannabis-Based Prescription Drug Associated with Opioid-Sparing Effects

Oslo, Norway: Prescription opioid users who frequently consume the cannabis plant-derived extract medication Sativex (nabiximols) substantially reduce their opioid intake over time, according to data published in the journal Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Technology.

Sativex is an oromucosal cannabis spray containing nearly equal portions of plant-derived THC and CBD. It is available by prescription in numerous countries, but it is not FDA-approved in the United States.

A team of researchers affiliated with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health assessed the relationship between the use of Sativex and opioids over a one-year period in a cohort of patients prescribed both substances.

They reported that those who filled their Sativex prescriptions three times or more during the study period decreased their use of prescription opioids. This decrease "was even more evident among those filling five or more prescriptions." By contrast, an inverse relationship was identified among those infrequently engaged in the use of Sativex.

Authors concluded: "This is one of a few studies investigating the impact of medicinal cannabis use on individual level opioid use. ... Looking at all those filling a prescription for Sativex, opioid use was only marginally lowered in the follow-up period. Some Sativex users, however, filled more prescriptions for Sativex and were able to reduce their opioid use substantially. Further studies are needed to elucidate more details on these patients, so as to know who can benefit from such cannabis-based extracts in reducing their opioid use."

Numerous studies have previously identified a relationship between patients' consumption of medical cannabis and a reduction in their use of opioids and other prescription drugs.

Full text of the study, "Possible opioid-saving effect of cannabis-based medicine using individual-based data from the Norwegian Prescription Database," appears in Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology.