Medical marijuana access and prolonged opioid use among adolescents and young adults.

Medical marijuana has been suggested as a substitute for opioids, but our results focusing on adolescents and young adults provide new evidence that this particularly vulnerable population does not exhibit reductions in prolonged use of opioids after surgery when they have legal access to medical marijuana. These findings are the first to demonstrate potentially important age differences in sustained use of opioids, and point to the need for prescriber oversight and management with this vulnerable population.