Chronic pain is the most common reason given for obtaining a license for medical cannabis (marijuana). It is also well known that chronic pain is common, challenging to treat, and costly to the medical system and the individual.
This study, published in The Journal of Pain, evaluated the surveys of 1,321 medical cannabis users with chronic pain, 59% of which were female, 54% of which were 50 years of age or older. Similar to the findings of other studies, about 80% reported substituting cannabis for medical pain prescriptions, including 53% for opioids and 22% for benzodiazepines.
It should be no surprise that the motivations given for their choices were the fact that they found that marijuana gave them better symptom management, improved health, and fewer side effects when compared to pharmaceutical pills. With consistent information like this from the public, perhaps more doctors should be asking themselves if they work for the pharmaceutical companies or for the patients.
