New research shows 40 percent (40%) of chronically ill veterans report that they use marijuana to relieve their symptoms.
The majority of participants say that they use marijuana to treat pain, sleep problems, and mobility issues. A large number of veterans say cannabis also helps relieve PTSD, stress, and anxiety. Nearly everyone (98%) said that healthcare providers should talk to their patients about natural products.
According to the report published in Global Advances in Integrative Medicine and Health journal, the survey revealed “common use of multiple NPs.” [natural products] The drugs can be used in combination with prescription medications and, sometimes, even substituted for them.”
Cannabis—including both CBD- and THC-dominant varieties—was the third most common natural product in the survey after vitamin D and multivitamins, the study found.
The report states that “of the 21 (40%), who reported using cannabis for any indication, the majority used products that contained a mixture of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.” Indications of cannabis use among those who have reported their usage were pain, mobility or sleep (81%), PTSD/anxiety (43%), stress (43%) and depression (30 %).”
The new sample size is relatively small. According to the authors, “the survey was piloted with 52 Veterans Health Administration (VA), primary care patients who have chronic pain.” The National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements and National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health provided some funding for the study.
The authors from Yale University and the University of California San Francisco noted that the number of respondents who reported cannabis use may be an underreporting due to the VA’s prohibition of cannabis prescription as a federal healthcare system.
Only about half of all respondents said that they had discussed the use of natural products with their health care providers. However, the authors pointed out that pharmacists and doctors are often unaware of NPs. That is why many avoid discussing NPs with patients.
It was also stated that while most natural products “are generally considered safe,” they may contain adulterants or have adverse effects.
The study was first reported by the advocacy group NORML and comes as activists and stakeholders continue to work to ensure veterans have access to marijuana.
Two veteran service groups, at a recent joint hearing, expressed their support for broader access to plant medicines such as marijuana and psychedelics.
Allison Jaslow said, “At the VA, veterans living in states that have legalized marijuana completely cannot be prescribed medical cannabis by their doctors.”
Jaslow said IAVA is “looking forward” to the reintroduction of a bipartisan bill—the Marijuana Safe Harbor Act—that would temporarily allow veterans to legally possess and use cannabis under federal law, as recommended by doctors in accordance with state law. VA doctors will also have the opportunity to give such recommendations, for the first.
In addition to that bill, cannabis-related measures for veterans have already been filed during the 119th Congress. That includes a bill sponsored by Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, whose Veterans Equal Access Act would similarly allow VA doctors to recommend medical marijuana to their patients in states where it’s legal.
Other VSOs also addressed marijuana and psychedelics policy with the bicameral committees at previous hearings last month, urging lawmakers to continue to explore the alternative therapeutic options and expedite access if they’re proven to be efficacious.
In 2023, a study found that 90 percent of U.S. veterans using medical marijuana said it had improved their lives. Many used cannabis to replace prescription and over-the counter medications.
A Senate Committee urged in July last year that the VA explore the use of medical marijuana to treat veterans as an alternative for opioids. The committee also asked the VA to allow its doctors to recommend cannabis formally to their patients.
According to a recent review of scientific literature, marijuana may reduce chronic pain in certain cases by using cannabinoids. In the paper, it was also stated that certain mixtures of cannabinoids may help reduce undesirable effects such as THC’s psychoactivity.
The paper, published last month by the Journal Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoids and written by Penn State College of Medicine researchers, reviewed the “most recent evidence” supporting cannabis’ use in treating chronic pain disorders, including cancer-induced neuropathy pain, chronic musculoskeletal and headache pains, and chronic migraines and headaches.
Research published earlier this year in the journal Pain also found that marijuana was “comparatively more effective than prescription medications” for treating chronic pain after a three-month period, and that many patients reduced their use of opioid painkillers while using cannabis.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School, the National Cancer Institute, and University of Pittsburgh used causal inference to conclude that medical marijuana under supervision was at least as good and possibly better than prescription drugs for treating chronic pain.
A separate federally funded study found that legalization of marijuana in U.S. states is associated with reduced prescriptions for opioid pain medications among commercially insured adults—indicating a possible substitution effect where patients are choosing to use cannabis instead of prescription drugs to treat pain.
Authors of the report noted, “The availability of recreational marijuana increases substitution for traditional pain medicines.” There “appears” to be only a minor shift, however, we notice stronger results when users have access to recreational dispensaries.
Another recent study also found a decrease in opioid fatal overdoses when marijuana for adults was legalized. That study found a “consistent negative relationship” between legalization and fatal overdoses, with more significant effects in states that legalized cannabis earlier in the opioid crisis. The authors estimated that legalizing recreational marijuana “is associated” with a reduction of approximately 3.5 fatalities per 100,000 people.
Another recently published report into prescription opioid use in Utah following the state’s legalization of medical marijuana found that the availability of legal cannabis both reduced opioid use by patients with chronic pain and helped drive down prescription overdose deaths statewide. The study concluded that cannabis has an important role in the management of pain and reduction of opioid usage.
Yet another study, published in 2023, linked medical marijuana use to lower pain levels and reduced dependence on opioids and other prescription medications. And another, published by the American Medical Association (AMA) last February, found that chronic pain patients who received medical marijuana for longer than a month saw significant reductions in prescribed opioids.
About one in three chronic pain patients reported using cannabis as a treatment option, according to a 2023 AMA-published report. The majority of those in that group reported using cannabis to replace other pain medication, such as opioids.
Other research published that year found that letting people buy CBD legally significantly reduced opioid prescription rates, leading to 6.6 percent to 8.1 percent fewer opioid prescriptions.
A 2022 research paper that analyzed Medicaid data on prescription drugs, meanwhile, found that legalizing marijuana for adult use was associated with “significant reductions” in the use of prescription drugs for the treatment of multiple conditions.
A 2023 report linked state-level medical marijuana legalization to reduced opioid payouts to doctors—another datapoint suggesting that patients use cannabis as an alternative to prescription drugs when given legal access.
Researchers in another study, published last year, looked at opioid prescription and mortality rates in Oregon, finding that nearby access to retail marijuana moderately reduced opioid prescriptions, though they observed no corresponding drop in opioid-related deaths.
Recent research has also shown that cannabis can be used as an alternative to opioids for pain relief.
A report published recently in the journal BMJ Open, for instance, compared medical marijuana and opioids for chronic non-cancer pain and found that cannabis “may be similarly effective and result in fewer discontinuations than opioids,” potentially offering comparable relief with a lower likelihood of adverse effects.
Separate research published found that more than half (57 percent) of patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain said cannabis was more effective than other analgesic medications, while 40 percent reported reducing their use of other painkillers since they began using marijuana.
In Minnesota, meanwhile, a state government report this year on chronic pain patients enrolled in the state’s medical marijuana program said recently that participants “are finding a noticeable change in pain relief” within a few months of starting cannabis treatment.
In a large-scale, nearly 10,000 patient study, nearly a quarter of patients who previously took painkillers reduced their usage after switching to medical marijuana.
Another new study on the use of medical marijuana by older patients—age 50 and above—concluded that “cannabis seemed to be a safe and effective treatment” for pain and other conditions.
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Side Pocket Images. Image courtesy Chris Wallis.