A US study has found almost one third of adults have used cannabis to manage chronic pain in states where the drug is legal for medicinal purposes, with their opioid use declining as a result.
University of Michigan researchers surveyed 1,724 adults aged 18-plus with chronic non-cancer pain living in the 36 states with active medicinal cannabis programs (and Washington DC) in March/April 2022.
Of the 1,661 respondents who completed the full survey, 31% reported using cannabis to manage their pain, with 25.9% of those having done so in the past 12 months, and 23.2% in the past 30 days.
More than half said using cannabis led them to decrease their use of other pain medications, including prescription opioids and over-the-counter analgesics, while fewer than 1% reported an increase in their use of these medications.
Corresponding author Mark Bicket, from the University of Michigan School of Medicine, said: “The fact that patients report substituting cannabis for pain medications so much underscores the need for research on the benefits and risk of using cannabis for chronic pain.”
