by CULTURE Magazine July 22, 2016

A new study published in the Health Affairs journal looked at Medicare data between 2010-2013 to discover if patients are choosing medical cannabis over prescription drugs, and how it has affected Medicare spending. The study revealed that Medicare was able to save over $165 million in 2013 within states that have already legalized medical cannabis. At this rate, if this continues to the point that all states legalize cannabis, Medicare savings could reach up to $500 million every year, according to Forbes.

Over 87 million prescriptions from the Medicare Part D database were used in this study and only focused on qualifying conditions that “might serve as an alternative treatment,” according to authors David Bradford and his daughter, Ashley Bradford, of the University of Georgia study. This extended to those who suffer from anxiety, depression, glaucoma, nausea, pain, psychosis, seizures, sleep disorders and spasticity—with pain having “moderate” proof of clinical evidence regarding the benefits of medical cannabis, compared to other conditions which were labeled as low or very low evidence.

The authors of the study also discovered that in states with medical cannabis laws, physicians prescribed 3,645 fewer pain prescriptions per doctor. As for states without medical cannabis laws, the daily dose per doctor was 31,810, but between the three-year study range, was decreased to 28,165.

Another observation that the Bradford researchers determined was whether medical cannabis was the entry point in allowing recreational cannabis use, or if it was verified as useful as medicine. Of course, they found that it does have medicinal significance, “What or evidence is suggesting is that . . . there is a significant amount of actual clinical use at work here,” stated Bradford.

In their next study, the authors plan to explore how medical cannabis’ side effects may affect Medicaid, which is a federal and state program that assists the elderly population with medical costs.