Study Says Medical Marijuana Mostly Used To Treat Pain

Is medicinal marijuana a legitimate medical treatment, or simply an end run around laws prohibiting the use of cannabis as a recreational drug?

Several states have passed medical marijuana laws in recent years and at least one, Michigan, is taking a second look, with some officials claiming the law is being exploited by criminals to make money selling marijuana.

Despite incidents in which the law is abused, a new study says patients in California with a physician's recommendation are predominantly using cannabis to treat symptoms of pain, insomnia, and anxiety.

The study, based on population data, is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz analyzed data from 1,746 consecutive admissions to nine medical marijuana assessment clinics operating throughout California.

Pain relief

"Relief of pain, spasms, headache, and anxiety, as well as to improve sleep and relaxation were the most common reasons patients cited for using medical marijuana," the authors wrote.

Patients typically reported that cannabis provided them with more than one therapeutic benefit, and four in five reported having first tried other medications prescribed by their physicians, almost half of which were opiates.

Of those sampled, three-fourths of the patients were male and three-fifths were Caucasian. Compared to the US Census of California, the patients in this sample were on average "somewhat younger, report[ed] slightly more years of formal education, and [were] more often employed."

Two-fifths of patients in the sample "had not been using marijuana recreationally prior to trying it for medicinal purposes."

Tobacco use

Investigators also reported that patients' use of tobacco was "somewhat higher than in the general population, but [that their] prevalence of alcohol use was significantly lower" than that of the general population. Patients use of other illicit substances, including cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin was also lower than that of the general population.

"Compared to earlier studies of medical marijuana patients, these data suggest that the patient population has evolved from mostly HIV/AIDS and cancer patients to a significantly more diverse array,” the authors concluded. “This suggests that the patient population is likely to continue evolving as new patients and physicians discover the therapeutic uses of cannabis."