Study: Medical marijuana correlates with drop in painkiller overdoses

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A new study out this week found the states that allow medical marijuana saw a drop in deaths from painkiller overdoses.

Researchers say chronic pain patients in those states used marijuana instead of pain medications, or a combination of the two.

This allowed them to cut back on prescription pain pills.

In states that adopted medical marijuana laws during the study, deaths linked to opioid pain medications dropped steadily. In most cases, they're down by more than one third.