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.
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.
