Pain is a prevalent cancer-associated symptom reported by more than 65% of patients with advanced cancer. 1 Cannabis has shown potential in treating cancer-related pain and alleviating adverse effects from cancer treatments. 2-4 To date, 39 states and Washington, DC, have enacted medical cannabis laws (MCLs) providing cannabis availability for patients with qualifying conditions,
including cancer, while 24 states and Washington, DC, have passed recreational cannabis laws (RCLs) legalizing adult-use cannabis. While opioids remain the recommended treatment for cancer pain, 5, 6 these patients may benefit from cannabis availability for adjuvant therapy. Further, cannabis use may reduce opioid use more among patients with cancer whose pain is not well managed with opioids or who experience negative effects of opioid use.
Although existing literature finds MCLs are associated with improved pain-related outcomes among patients with newly diagnosed cancer,2 no studies examine the effects of RCLs on opioid use among populations with cancer diagnoses or of any cannabis availability on opioid use across subpopulations of patients who may have been traditionally undertreated for pain.7,8 This study fills these gaps by implementing a synthetic control design accounting for variation between populations in states with and without medical cannabis dispensaries (MCDs) and recreational cannabis dispensaries (RCDs).
Lozano-Rojas, F., Bethel, V., Gupta, S., Steuart, S. R., Bradford, W. D., & Abraham, A. J. (2025, October). Cannabis Laws and Opioid Use Among Commercially Insured Patients With Cancer Diagnoses. In JAMA Health Forum (Vol. 6, No. 10, p. e253512). American Medical Association.
