A big issue emerged that involves medical marijuana because more people prefer to use marijuana than opioids.
Certain NBA and NFL players said that leagues should consider allowing players to consume marijuana for pain management because opioids come with well-known problems. There is also the fact that we have ongoing overdose epidemic caused by opioids.
Pain management is just one of the benefits of using marijuana as it is proven by numerous studies from across the globe.
But recently published data showed that people are making a massive switch to naturally grown marijuana opposed to the prescription drugs that benefit the pharmaceutical industry.
Losing Billions
Washington, D.C.-based data analytics company, New Frontier Data researched the potential result of people using marijuana rather than prescription drugs. They considered nine illnesses that are often treated by marijuana.
Results showed that Big Pharma would lose approximately $5 billion per year. This analysis is based on the presumption that marijuana will become legal across the nation.
Although that is less likely to happen with current state administration, it is still showing how big the financial risk is with medical marijuana. It’s not just about how much can legal marijuana companies earn through legalization, but also how much Big Pharma could lose.
The conditions
The researchers took into account just the medical conditions that physicians most often prescribe medical marijuana to treat, in the states in which medical marijuana is legalized.
Those are:
- Nerve pain
- Glaucoma
- Tourette syndrome
- Chronic pain
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Sleep disorders
- Chemotherapy-induced nausea
- Seizures/epilepsy
- Anxiety
New Frontier Data considered a study from 2016 done by the University of Georgia researchers which showed that the number of drug prescriptions dropped by 11 percent among older patients in the states in which medical marijuana is legalized. Then, based on those percentages, the New Frontier Data researchers collected the data that showed how much is spent all around the country on prescriptions drugs for these nine conditions. Results showed that pharmaceutical sales could lose between $4.4 billion to $4.9 billion because of medical marijuana.
The position of the Trump Administration on legalizing recreational marijuana is already well-known. Nonetheless, other government officials, such as Attorney General Jeff Sessions, have much more tolerant opinions on medical marijuana than marijuana for recreational use.
But since then, the same research team from the University of Georgia published a new study that showed more people prefer marijuana regardless of their age.
The previous survey was focused largely on older Americans on Medicaid, and the recent one included the patients of all ages and revealed that preference for marijuana is largely present among many. In the states where marijuana is legal, there is a 17 percent reduction in prescriptions that are given for nausea and 13 percent drop in prescriptions filled for depression.