$18.5 billion less for Big Pharma if all 50 states legalize medical cannabis: Study shows

(Photo credit: The Free Thought Project. Thank you for the amazing graphic.)

The impending legalization of cannabis has the pharmaceutical industry in a tizzy; a recent study “From Prescription to Recommendation: How Cannabis Could Disrupt the Pharmaceutical Industry”, found that “if medical cannabis were legalized in all 50 states, the expenditures by pharmaceutical companies on the top nine conditions commonly treated by medical marijuana could plummet by as much as $18.5 billion between 2016 and 2019.” ¹

That’s a lot of lost profits.

“According to Giadha Aguirre De Carcer, CEO and founder of New Frontier Data, 35% of the global pharmaceutical market comes from the United States. In addition to being the largest market in the world as well as a major driver of the U.S. economy, it’s just one of a number of industries that will be impacted by the already flourishing legal cannabis market.”²

And it’s already starting. In the states where medical cannabis is legal the use of key prescription drugs has decreased by 11 percent!

It stands to reason that if cannabis became legal- nationwide- that many patients would choose it instead of traditional pharmaceuticals (or perhaps add it to the use of traditional drugs and thereby, use less).

So, what are the conditions most effectively treated by medical cannabis?³

• chronic pain
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• sleep disorders
• anxiety
• nerve pain
• chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV)
• Tourette syndrome
• glaucoma
• and seizures/epilepsy

New Frontier Data analysts estimated the total decrease in monies to Big Pharma, should the magical plant become legal and “factored in the decrease to the total dollar amount for expenditures in the U.S.”⁴ on the treatments for the conditions mentioned above and according to their findings cannabis and related products could replace $4.4 to $4.9 billion per year on Big Pharma treatments.

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This data seems to intimate that the impact medical cannabis would have on the pharmaceutical industry would not cripple them, but you know, any loss of money and power is terrifying to them.

If cannabis becomes totally legal in your state for medicinal purposes or recreational use, will you choose to use it instead of pharmaceuticals?

1. Trulieve, February 28, 2018.
2. Trulieve, February 28, 2018.
3. Trulieve, February 28, 2018.
4. Trulieve, February 28, 2018.