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Over half of patients ‘replace’ opioids with cannabis

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4 years ago

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61 percent of patients said they had 'replaced' opioids and/or benzodiazepines with medical cannabis.

Over 60 percent of medical cannabis patients in a statewide US report say they have used it to replace prescription medications.

The analysis conducted in Texas by Rice University’s Bake Institute for Public Policy found a clear majority of users had substituted conventional medicines for cannabis-based products.
Of 2,900 people in the survey, 61 percent said they had ‘replaced’ opioids and/or benzodiazepines with medical cannabis.
The majority of respondents reported using cannabis primarily to mitigate pain.
Among those respondents who were veterans, just over half reported using cannabis to address symptoms of post-traumatic stress.
Overall, four-in-ten respondents said that the use of cannabis ‘has improved their quality of life’.
The report will boost calls for medicinal cannabis to be used in order to reduce the prescription of opioids in the US, which is fuelling an addiction crisis.
Texas lawmakers passed the Compassionate Use Act in 2015, which saw the state officially recognised cannabis as medicine, but access is still tightly restricted.
The report makes a series of policy recommendations, including raising the cap on THC content, expanding access and decriminalising possession for small amounts of cannabis.
The survey was conducted online between August 11, 2020, and October 6, 2020. Twenty-two percent of respondents were military veterans.

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Sarah Sinclair is an award-winning freelance journalist covering health, drug policy and social affairs. She is one of the few UK reporters specialising in medical cannabis policy and as the former editor of Cannabis Health has covered developments in the European cannabis sector extensively, with a focus on patients and consumers. She continues to report on cannabis-related health and policy for Forbes, Cannabis Health and Business of Cannabis and has written for The i Paper, Byline Times, The Lead, Positive News, Leafie & others. Sarah has an NCTJ accreditation and an MA in Journalism from the University of Sunderland and has completed additional specialist training through the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society in the UK. She has spoken at leading industry events such as Cannabis Europa.

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