A new study conducted by researchers at Research on the Emerald Coast and That’s what Florida State University College of Medicine found “Opioid use rates have fallen as North American patients increase Access to medicinal cannabissuggesting a role in harm reduction, but the health implications remain largely unexplored.”
That study showed Self-reported medical cannabis use, health functioning perceptions, and changes in opioid analgesic use among medical cannabis patients in Florida.
Method:
Marijuana patients were recruited from medical dispensaries across Florida and conducted a 66-item cross-sectional survey that included demographic, health, drug use, and Medical Outcomes Survey items to assess health functioning before and after cannabis initiation, the study noted.
Results
Attendees were between 20 and 70 years old (95%); over 54% were female; 47% were employed and most (85%) were white. Commonly reported disease groups were Pain and mental health combined (47.92%), Mental health (28.86%) or Pains (9.07%),” the researchers said.
“Health domains of physical pain, physical functioning, and social functioning improved, while limitations due to physical and emotional problems remained unchanged.”
Medicinal cannabis is quality of life
In addition, 60.98% of the participants reported taking pain medication before using medical marijuana, and 93.36% of them reported a change in pain medication after using medical cannabis.
That majority of participants (79%) reported either stopping or reducing pain medication use after starting medicinal cannabis use and 11.47% reported improved functioning.
The results indicated that some Medical cannabis patients Reduced their opioid use shortly after medical cannabis was legalized without affecting their quality of life or health. “The public health implications of medicinal cannabis as an alternative analgesic are debated,” the researchers concluded.
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