The results make a compelling case for legalization.

As opioid abuse continues to be a national discussion, a new study has revealed less people are hospitalized for opioid abuse in states where medical marijuana is legalized.

The study, published Saturday in journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, tallied hospital discharges in 27 states from 1997 to 2014. Where medicinal cannabis is legal, hospitalizations caused by opioid dependence drop by 23 percent and those caused by opioid overdoses drop 11 percent. For those states with actual dispensaries in operations, the figures are 13 percent and 11 percent, respectively. And hospitalizations caused by cannabis did not increase in states with medical marijuana.

The author of the study is Yuyan Shi, an assistant professor of family medicine and public health at the University of California in San Diego. He said of his findings: “It is still premature to advocate medical marijuana legalization as a strategy to curb the POR abuse and overdose epidemic, but the policymakers should take into consideration these positive unintended consequences while legalizing medical marijuana. The findings presented in this study merit further investigations especially those to understand the causal pathways.”

Just prior to this study, many Republican lawmakers have come out against medical marijuana to combat opioid abuse. Ohio Governor John Kasich told reporters last Thursday, “I know it’s not recreational marijuana, not recreational use, but I don’t see a role for it in this at all.”

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Session used stronger words, saying: “I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana, so people can trade one-life wrecking dependency for another that’s only slightly less awful. Our nation needs to say clearly once again that using drugs will destroy your life.”

So will this new study change their minds? Well, fingers crossed.