Cannabis Is Medicine by Bonni Goldstein

Author:Bonni Goldstein [GOLDSTEIN, BONNI]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2020-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

• In a 2016 survey of 374 approved medical cannabis patients in Michigan, 185 patients who completed the survey were using cannabis for relief of chronic pain. The authors of this report found statistically significant decreases in medication side effects and in total number of medications taken, including opioids. Many of the respondents reported improvements in their quality of life.131

• A 2016 online survey of 1,429 medical cannabis users in 18 countries (77.8 percent from the US, 61 percent with chronic pain) reported 86 percent had improvement in symptoms, with 25 percent substituting cannabis for opiates.132

• A 2017 survey of 271 Canadian medical cannabis patients revealed that 71 percent (186 patients) were able to substitute cannabis for prescription drugs (63 percent), alcohol (25 percent), tobacco/nicotine (12 percent), and illicit substances (3 percent). Overall, 32 percent were able to substitute cannabis for opiates, 16 percent for benzodiazepines, and 12 percent for antidepressants; and 257 of the 271 respondents reported cannabis to be very effective at relieving symptoms. The researchers reported, “Our data suggested no relationship between age, amount of cannabis used, mode of administration, access or affordability on substitution effect.”133

• A 2017 survey in New Mexico compared thirty-seven habitual opioid-using chronic pain patients approved for medical cannabis use with twenty-nine non-approved patients, also using opioids, and found that after twenty-one months, being enrolled in the cannabis program was associated with 17.27 higher odds of ceasing opioids, 5.12 higher odds of reducing daily prescription opioid dosages, and a 47 percent reduction of daily opioid dosages. Survey responses found statistically significant “improvements in pain reduction, quality of life, social life, activity levels, and concentration, and few side effects from using cannabis one year after enrollment.”134

• A 2018 report from the Cannabis Clinical Research Institute and the Institute for Drug Research, both in Israel, reviewed the use of medical cannabis in 901 elderly patients (over sixty-five years old) spanning a period of almost three years. They found 93.7 percent of respondents reported improvement in their condition, with a pain reduction from a median of “8 out of 10” to “4 out of 10.” After six months, 18.1 percent were able to discontinue or reduce their use of opioid-based medications.135

• In a 2019 report of 204 elderly medical cannabis patients (over seventy-five years of age) in New York, 69 percent reported benefits, with 49 percent reporting improvement in chronic pain, 18 percent reporting improvement in sleep, 15 percent reporting improvement in neuropathy, and 10 percent reporting improvement in anxiety. Opioids were reduced in 32 percent of respondents. Adverse effects were initially reported in 34 percent, but once they changed dosing or product, only 13 percent reported side effects. Overall, 3.4 percent (seven patients) discontinued due to unwanted side effects.136

• A 2020 retrospective cohort study from a cannabis medical practice in California followed 180 patients with chronic lower back pain from one to eleven years, finding 50.8 percent were able to stop all opioid use. Of the twenty-nine patients who did not stop opioids, nine were able to reduce opioid use, three had no change, and seventeen increased their usage.

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