If the United States legalize cannabis for medical conditions such as chronic pain, anxiety and seizures, cannabis could siphon more than $4 billion annually from the country’s pharmaceutical industry, according to New Frontier Data.

“Any opportunity for alternatives that could result in reduced pharmaceutical drug use might present a compelling point of discussion from a public policy standpoint,” John Kagia, executive vice president of industry analytics for the Washington, D.C.-based New Frontier, told The Cannabist.

The foundation of New Frontier’s report is a University of Georgia study from 2016 that tracked Medicare Part D spending in states with legalized medical cannabis. Medicare prescriptions declined from 2010 to 2013 for drugs in which medical cannabis could be a better alternative, which amounted to an annual savings of $165.2 million in 2013. Taxpayers could save $1.1 billion on Medicaid prescriptions annually, the Washington Post reported.

That research was extrapolated and applied to the average prescription decline of 11 percent to annual pharmaceutical spending for the most common conditions that qualify for medical cannabis. New Frontier reviewed current medical cannabis laws and the National Academies of Science’s report showing potential efficacy of medical cannabis for certain conditions. New Frontier then decided to examine chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep disorders, anxiety, epilepsy, nerve pain, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, Tourette syndrome and glaucoma for its study.