States that have passed laws allowing the use of medical marijuana have experienced reduced pain reports as well as increased hours worked by older Americans.

A study by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in conjunction with Temple University looked at older Americans' well-being before and after passage of such laws. The results indicate that medical marijuana laws could be boosting older people's health.

According to the JHBPH study, reported pain was down by 4.8 percent, while reported very “good or excellent health” was up 6.6 percent among respondents with a health condition who were eligible for medical marijuana use once their states passed medical marijuana laws. Similar respondents in states that did not pass such laws did not see such changes.

The study appears in the Spring 2019 issue of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

“Our study is important because of the limited availability of clinical trial data on the effects of medical marijuana,” Lauren Hersch Nicholas, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Bloomberg School's Department of Health Policy and Management, said in a statement. “While several studies point to improved pain control with medical marijuana, research has largely ignored older adults even though they experience the highest rates of medical issues that could be treated with medical marijuana.”

Although there is concern among opponents of legalized medical marijuana that it will lead to illegal drug use—not just of marijuana but also of related substances—advocates point to the potential health benefits, not just for pain management but also for other conditions. The researchers examined responses about frequency of pain, whether health limits work, overall health assessment and depressive symptoms, among other factors, reviewing them in relation to the passage of medical marijuana laws.

Among the dataset, researchers noted an overall 5 percent increase in full time workers; that rate increased to 7.3 percent in areas that had passed medical marijuana laws. Researchers conclude, “These results suggest that any decline in productivity resulting from medical marijuana usage—such as not being able to work at capacity while under treatment—is outweighed by increased capacity to work.”

“These findings underscore the close relationship between health policy and labor supply within older adults,” Nicholas continued. “When we're doing policy evaluations, we have to think not only about whether the policy is changing health outcomes, but also whether it does it in a way that supports labor force participation.”

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Medical marijuana: A boon for older workers?

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