Adults with Chronic Pain Support Cannabis Use More Than Physicians
- A study published in JAMA Network Open found that adults with chronic pain who use cannabis are more supportive of policies expanding access to the drug compared to physicians.
- Despite this support, the use of medical cannabis for chronic pain treatment is still controversial within the healthcare community.
- Nearly a third of adults with chronic pain have reported using cannabis to treat their condition.
- While most states have legalized medical cannabis in some capacity, the use and legalization of cannabis for medical purposes remains a debated topic.
Adults with chronic pain who use cannabis to treat their condition showed more support for policies that expand access to the drug compared to physicians, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.
Despite patient and clinician opinions, the use of medical cannabis to treat chronic pain is more so becoming commonplace within health care. A total of 47 US states have legalized its use for medical purposes in some capacity, while close to a third of adults with chronic pain have reported using cannabis to treat it.
“Most states have legalized medical cannabis; many have legalized cannabis for adult recreational use,” wrote authors of the study.1 “Given this policy environment, we conducted surveys of physicians and people with chronic pain on support for policies affecting access to cannabis for chronic pain.”
Laws regarding cannabis legalization have been debated for many years, with the first state to accept its use for medical purposes being California in 1996.4 However, as laws in the following years expanded cannabis use, and more adults began using it to treat chronic pain, the use and legalization of cannabis for medical purposes is still not widely accepted.
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