Cannabis is “safe and effective treatment option and potential opioid substitute”

According to data published in the journal Pain Medicine, daily marijuana use by patients with chronic pain showed prolonged improvements in patients’ symptoms, quality of life, and reduced use of opioids.

Patients that participated in the study used marijuana daily for a period of 12 months, NORML reported, and 60% of them reported no previous experience with marijuana.

“Taken together, the results of this study add to the cumulative evidence in support of plant-based MC (medical cannabis) as a safe and effective treatment option and potential opioid substitute or augmentation therapy for the management of chronic pain symptomatology and quality of life,” the study concluded.

Patients’ initial reduction in opioid consumption was at three months. They further reduced their intake at six months and again at twelve months.

The study noticed significant improvements in patients’ pain levels “as early as one month after initiating treatment and [these improvements] were maintained over the course of the 12-month observation period.”