That is not what the data shows.
Regarding people decreasing opioid use or regarding medicinal value?
I have my hesitations and get your points but this seems overly cynical and misinformed. There are many people out there who can’t function normally without it. Period. Other prescribed drugs have too many bad side effects and mj is the only thing that helps stabilize them per se and offers them the chance at a normal life.
It's not a black-and-white issue. There's decent evidence of some benefit for some things such as neuropathic pain, but there are many drugs that are not approved by the FDA that have benefit, too, but nobody is worked up on those. Imagine if Tylenol were somehow discontinued tomorrow. Despite it's wide use, I doubt you'd see as large of an uproar. I think the argument defaults to the moral argument: many people view it as wrong and so they oppose it, while other people are so turned off by people opposing it for moral reasons that they support it harder as if it now has a greater medicinal value because of its opposition.
I'm really not on either side of that argument, and I think hearing that someone opposes
a lot of the specifics on medical application, that it ruffles a lot of feathers by mere fact that any opposition is associated with everyone who's making a moral stand.
In any case, my argument is on the idea that people would consume less opioids with the legalization is wishful thinking. There may be some reduction, but people really overestimate how easy it is for people to give up their opioids, even the vast majority of people who "aren't abusing them."
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/marijuana-treatment-reduces-severe-epileptic-seizures/
The above is probably the most dramatic example of how one of weed's active ingredients, cannabidiol (CBD), has medicinal value.
A member of my extended family had Huntington's Disease. As the symptoms of that always fatal disease grow worse, angry outbursts become a real problem, something that is hard for other family members/loved ones to live with. Eventually, he made the decision to enter hospice, but, before he did, he obtained a medical marijuana license and he smoked weed daily, because it simply improved his mood. He was easier to be around. He was happier, and if you've ever known anyone with Huntington's, who can really argue with that?
Right, I'm not saying there isn't value, but I think the value can be overstated (that's not to say that there aren't situations in which there is even a significant amount of benefit), just as the value of medical care in general can be overstated, or the value of many drugs on the market that are very common but don't actually contribute much to improved outcomes, or the value for essential oils -- there's benefit to all of the above (but what that benefit is, how significant it is, and what its application is are totally different discussions).
Huntington's is a perfect example: it's incredibly rare. A lot of the big pushes for medicinal value cite examples of incredibly rare scenarios, with the resulting legislative agenda being a much different application.
Anyway, my beef is that because of marijuana's place and perception in society, it has elevated its debate on its effectiveness to such a level that is significantly out of proportion with its application and benefits, but I don't think that's a very real discussion that's able to be had because it too easily falls back on a moral dichotomy.