Studies: Legalizing marijuana reduces alcohol and opioid use

The myth: Pot is a “gateway drug” that will send users spiraling into drug addiction, forcing them to turn tricks to pay for their next heroin fix.

The reality:

A new working paper by researchers at the University of Connecticut and Georgia State University found that in some states that had legalized medical marijuana, alcohol sales had fallen up to 15%.

[…]

This finding is significant, as the consequences for alcohol use are generally considered to be more severe than for marijuana use. This past summer, in a survey of their consumers by Eaze, a cannabis technology company that facilitates delivery of medical marijuana, the company found that many people who used medical marijuana decreased their alcohol use.

Of the respondents that consumed alcohol, 87% said they had reduced their drinking because of their cannabis use and 13% said they had replaced alcohol completely with cannabis.

And it’s not just alcohol being replaced. Fewer people are using opiates, with fewer deaths as a result, and that’s also traceable to marijuana legalization:

A recent study in the American Journal of Public Health concluded that marijuana legalization in Colorado had resulted in short-term reductions in opioid-related deaths. Other research has corroborated this trend, noting that fewer prescription painkillers are prescribed in states where cannabis is legal.

Why, it’s almost as though “drug warriors” were talking out of their ass, and that removing arbitrary and historically racist restrictions on a substance that’s only fractionally as dangerous as drugs that are already legal were an idea that made sense.

(via @fark)