The National Institute on Drug Abuse funded a study that examined county-level information about medical marijuana users and clinics in seven U.S. States, with a focus on the demographics.
A study found that there is a significant association between the number of military veterans and those who are authorized to prescribe medical marijuana. The authors wrote “may be a reflection of veteran efforts to increase MC [medical cannabis] Access and increased prevalence of qualifying conditions (such as post-traumatic disorder or chronic pain) among vets.
This report was released on Thursday by the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open. Five-person teams from University of Michigan’s Medical School, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (CDC), and Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education Tennessee authored the report.
Researchers analyzed 2022 data on medical marijuana patients and authorizing clinicians from 262 counties across seven states—Delaware, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Utah and West Virginia—comparing that data with county-level demographic information on factors like income, race and ethnicity as well as percentages of veterans and people unemployed, uninsured, living in poverty and disabled.
There were 75.5 patients registered for medical cannabis per every 10,000 residents. That means the patients in these states accounted for about 0.8 percent. In addition, 1.4 authorized clinicians were present for every 10,000 residents.
Patients were more likely to register in counties that had higher incomes and those who also had higher levels of uninsured people. Medical marijuana rates were lower in counties that had a higher proportion of minority ethnic and racial groups.
In terms of the number of medical marijuana-recommended clinicians, they were more prevalent in areas with higher median household incomes and those that had a greater proportion military veterans. Clinicians are scarcer in counties that have high rates of unemployment and those with higher male to female ratios.
Authors noted that some factors aligned with patient models such as higher income in the locality and lower levels of unemployment. However, further research is required to better understand the discrepancies that exist between patient and clinician models. [social vulnerability] The Authorizing Clinical Rate
In its report, the team says that future research will “assist in better targeting appropriate substance abuse resources and educational materials related to marijuana within communities most in need”.
In other research, published in JAMA Network Open this week, it was found that, while marijuana usage among Canadian adults increased in the year following the legalization of the drug nationwide, the problematic use of cannabis actually decreased.
These results, the authors wrote in their study, do not show an increase in adverse effects for those adults who actively used cannabis prior to legalization.
They added that “from a public-health perspective, the results are mixed, as increased usage might be considered detrimental, whereas decreased misuse is positive.”
As marijuana laws continue to evolve, governments and experts in public health have worked to monitor consumer behaviour. In the U.S., a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report recently broke down federal data on cannabis use among thousands of U.S. adults, finding that while smoking marijuana remains the most common way to consume it, methods such as eating, vaping and dabbing are growing in popularity.
15 percent of all adults in 2022 reported that they were currently using marijuana, with 7.9 percent reporting daily usage. Most (79.4%) reported that they were smokers, while the rest (41.6%), vape (30.3%) and dabbers (14.6%) admitted to using it.
About half of all adults who used marijuana (46.7 percent) reported multiple methods of use—most typically smoking and eating or smoking and vaping.
Rates of both vaping and dabbing—as well as cannabis use in general—were higher in young adults than the general adult population.
An earlier analysis from CDC found that rates of current and lifetime cannabis use among high school students have continued to drop amid the legalization movement.
Another recent federal report, published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), found that consumption among minors—defined as people 12 to 20 years of age—had fallen slightly in the past year. Despite methodological changes that make comparisons over time difficult, it also suggests that youth use has fallen significantly in the past decade.
A separate poll recently found that that more Americans smoke marijuana on a daily basis than drink alcohol every day—and that alcohol drinkers are more likely to say they would benefit from limiting their use than cannabis consumers are.
According to the study, U.S. alcohol drinkers were nearly three times more likely to feel that they could reduce their consumption of the substance than marijuana consumers. The survey also found that lifetime alcohol consumption among adult was more prevalent than marijuana use. However, the daily cannabis usage was more popular.
An earlier report published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs that found that secondhand harm caused by marijuana use is far less prevalent than that of alcohol, with respondents reporting secondhand harm from drinking at nearly six times the rate they did for cannabis.
Yet another 2022 study from Michigan State University researchers, published in the journal PLOS One, found that “cannabis retail sales might be followed by the increased occurrence of cannabis onsets for older adults” in legal states, “but not for underage persons who cannot buy cannabis products in a retail outlet.”
The trends were observed despite adult use of marijuana and certain psychedelics reaching “historic highs” in 2022, according to separate data.
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Mike Latimer provided the photo.