As opioid abuse continues to be a nationwide dialogue, a brand new examine has revealed much less individuals are hospitalized for opioid abuse in states the place medical marijuana is legalized.

The examine, revealed Saturday in journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, tallied hospital discharges in 27 states from 1997 to 2014. The place medicinal hashish is authorized, hospitalizations attributable to opioid dependence drop by 23 p.c and people attributable to opioid overdoses drop 11 p.c. For these states with precise dispensaries in operations, the figures are 13 p.c and 11 p.c, respectively. And hospitalizations attributable to hashish didn’t enhance in states with medical marijuana.

The creator of the examine is Yuyan Shi, an assistant professor of household drugs and public well being on the College of California in San Diego. He stated of his findings: “It’s nonetheless untimely to advocate medical marijuana legalization as a technique to curb the POR abuse and overdose epidemic, however the policymakers ought to think about these optimistic unintended penalties whereas legalizing medical marijuana. The findings offered on this examine benefit additional investigations particularly these to know the causal pathways.”

Simply previous to this examine, many Republican lawmakers have come out towards medical marijuana to fight opioid abuse. Ohio Governor John Kasich instructed reporters final Thursday, “I do know it’s not leisure marijuana, not leisure use, however I don’t see a job for it on this in any respect.”

U.S. Lawyer Common Jeff Session used stronger phrases, saying: “I’m astonished to listen to folks recommend that we will resolve our heroin disaster by legalizing marijuana, so folks can commerce one-life wrecking dependency for one more that’s solely barely much less terrible. Our nation must say clearly as soon as once more that utilizing medication will destroy your life.”

So will this new examine change their minds? Properly, fingers crossed.