Science & Health
Medical Marijuana Effectively Treats Chronic Pain And Helps Patients Reduce Prescription Drug Use, Survey Shows
Medical marijuana patients with chronic pain overwhelmingly agree the cannabis is an effective, long-term treatment option—with one in three saying it has helped them to eliminate the use of prescription drugs—according to a new poll.
The survey from the medical marijuana certification company Green Health Docs, which involved interviews with 1,450 patients nationwide, asked a variety of questions about how cannabis impacts their chronic pain.
Eight-six percent said that cannabis improved their pain at least moderately, with 56 percent saying they say “significant” reductions in pain.
Nearly half of respondents—48 percent—said they were using prescription pain medications before trying marijuana. After using cannabis, 35 percent stopped all prescription pain medications, 15 percent stopped using some and 12 percent reduced their dosage or frequency. Fewer than one in five (18 percent) reported no change in prescription pain medication consumption following the initiation of medical cannabis use.
“Many participants highlighted the lower risk of overdose compared to opioids, a more manageable side-effect profile, and the flexibility of different product formats,” the polling report from Green Health Docs says. “These factors explain why so many choose cannabis as a safer long-term strategy.”
Almost a fourth of patients in the survey (73 percent) said they rely on use of marijuana to relieve pain on a daily basis, and most also said they believe cannabis to be a viable long-term solution for managing chronic pain—with just over one percent saying they disagree with that notion.
“Respondents frequently described secondary benefits, such as better sleep, increased mobility, and reduced anxiety,” Dr. Anand Dugar of Green Health Docs said. “These improvements compound to make a meaningful difference in day-to-day life.”
This represents one of the latest pieces of evidence that marijuana can serve as an effective substitute for opioids in pain management treatment.
Another study, published in the journal Pain Management in August, determined that “co-prescription of cannabinoids may enable patients to reduce their opioid consumption prescribed for chronic benign pain.”
Earlier this year, a different study in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review found that, among drug users who experience chronic pain, daily cannabis use was linked to a higher likelihood of quitting the use of opioids—especially among men.
A study published late last year also found that legalizing medical cannabis appeared to significantly reduce monetary payments from opioid manufacturers to doctors who specialize in pain, with authors finding “evidence that this decrease is due to medical marijuana becoming available as a substitute” for prescription painkillers.
Other recent research also showed a decline in fatal opioid overdoses in jurisdictions where marijuana was legalized for adults. 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. Authors estimated that recreational marijuana legalization “is associated with a decrease of approximately 3.5 deaths per 100,000 individuals.”
“Our findings suggest that broadening recreational marijuana access could help address the opioid epidemic,” that report said. “Previous research largely indicates that marijuana (primarily for medical use) can reduce opioid prescriptions, and we find it may also successfully reduce overdose deaths.”
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. Overall, results of the study indicated that “cannabis has a substantial role to play in pain management and the reduction of opioid use,” it said.
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. Most of that group said they used cannabis as a substitute for other pain medications, including 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.
Other recent research also indicates that cannabis may be an effective substitute for opioids in terms of pain management.
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.
