One of the consequences that were expected by the states was that if they legalize cannabis in their states then the number of pot smokers would increase; however, on the contrary, the number of the pot smokers has not changed. In addition to this, even the number of opioid users has also gone down.

The decrease in the opioid users is not just by a handful. In the hospitals where initially opioid was used as a painkiller, there has been a drop of 23 percent in its use and this has been replaced by medical cannabis. Not only is medical marijuana legalized in the states for usage, but the scientific research that has been carried out in this sector has also proven that medical marijuana is a safer choice for a painkiller as compared to opioid. Even the rate of overdose has seen a decline by 13 percent.

A professor working at the public health sector in the California University, Yiyan Shi stated that the reason for the reduction of the treatments based on opioids has gone down is that marijuana is now readily available and legal to use for medical purpose. However, the results of these transformations in the hospital trends are preliminary at the moment.

Most of the hospitals had been hoping and bracing in order to gain access to marijuana for medical purpose.

A professor of emergency medicine at the Science and Healthy University of Oregon situated in Portland also provided her insight into this subject. She said that the fact that marijuana is causing the number of opioid users to decline gradually is a statement that must be given credit to without looking into the details.

She said for this statement to hold true, research must be carried out on a long-term basis, but research as of now is suggesting that the decrease in the opioid users can be contributed to the legalization of medical cannabis. She also added that if the states wish to solve the dilemma of opioid then the access to cannabis must be increased further. She also said that cannabis needs a lot of study and research along with the policies surrounding it.

A recent survey that was conducted showed that the abuse caused by prescribed painkillers kill about 91 people almost daily. At the moment, medical cannabis is legal in a total of 28 states as well as Washington DC. 9 such states have clearly shown the drop of opioid users and other states are likely to show similar patterns of opioid declining very soon.