Aleafia Health Inc. announced that it believes to be the first study reporting reduced benzodiazepine use among patients initiated and monitored on medical cannabis. Benzodiazepines, a class of psychoactive drugs, include the most common sedatives and anti-anxiety medications. It found that 45.2% of patients regularly consuming benzodiazepines had stopped taking the medication within approximately six months of beginning medical cannabis. These patients, following prescription cannabis use, also reported decreased daily distress due to medical conditions. The cohort featured 146 patients who received physician-led treatment in Aleafia Health’s wholly owned Canabo Medical Clinics (“Canabo”). Aleafia believes it maintains the world’s largest medical cannabis patient dataset and is deploying the data for unique insights in medical cannabis treatment and product development best practices. The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and Addiction (CCSAA) warns that benzodiazepines may lead to serious long-term complications, including dependence, overdose and death. According to a CCSAA study, 10 per cent of the Canadian population takes prescription sedatives. And a study published in The British Medical Journal found that benzodiazepines consumption significantly increased the risk of opioid overdose.