Why Big Pharma is Spending so Much Money to Defeat Marijuana Initiatives - Hit & Run : Reason.com
One big part of the answer is that states with legal marijuana—medical or recreational—have lower rates of drug prescriptions.Ashely and W. David Bradford, a daughter-father pair of researchers at the University of Georgia, quantified the relationship between legal pot and prescription drugs in a study published earlier this year. They analyzed state-level prescription drug databases from 2010 through 2013 and found that doctors prescribed significantly fewer pharmaceutical drugs in states with legal medical weed.
The largest drop-off was for prescription pain-killers (with 1,800 fewer doses prescribed annually in states with medical marijuana laws), like the one made by Insys Therapeutics, but the Bradfords found a significant declines in prescriptions to treat depression, anxiety and seizures.
"The availability of medical marijuana has a significant effect on prescribing patterns and spending in Medicare Part D," the Bradfords wrote. States with medical marijuana laws saved $165.2 million in Medicaid costs during 2013, they said.....
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