A new study analyzing data from a federally funded survey has shown that medical cannabis use in the United States more than doubled between 2013 and 2020. This is largely due to state-level legalization.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health has been conducted every year since 1971. In 2013, a new question was added about medical marijuana. It asked whether any cannabis use in the last 12 months had been recommended by a doctor. In the first year, only 1.2 percent of those surveyed answered positively. This figure has risen to 2.5% seven years later.
Greg Rhee and Robert Rosenheck, who are both from Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs New England Mental Illness, Research, Education and Clinical Center, analyzed the data and found that medical marijuana usage in America increased at an average rate of 12.9 per cent each year.
“This study documents an increase in cannabis use for various medical purposes across the country between 2013 and 2020,” the authors write in the Paper. This paper was published as a pre-proof to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Living in a legalized state for medical cannabis is associated with higher odds of using it.
The report also highlighted other variables that are associated with medical marijuana use, such as being between 18 and 25 years old, being male, not having been married, having received some college education, and being uninsured.
These associations do not necessarily mean that these groups were more likely than others to have used medical marijuana, or that they saw greater use rates over the seven year period. These associations are only indicative of the statistically significant interactions between survey years and trends in these groups over time.
For example, in terms of their health insurance status, medical marijuana use by uninsured persons increased the most slowly over the seven year period. But, this was less likely to be due just to chance.
Rhee explained that “when the ‘uninsured” is interacted with ‘time (survey year), the effect is actually lessen and was significant,” in an email to Marijuana Moment.
Rhee stated that the study does not attempt to examine how states’ transitions from medical-only to adult-use legalization laws may have affected medical marijuana usage. He said, “Unfortunately it’s beyond the scope of analysis because there was no way to distinguish states by legalization status.”
Respondents who claimed to have experienced medical conditions were also included in the study. It states that “Clinically relevant groups that had significantly higher odds of using medical cannabis included: past-year major depression episode, poor self-reporting, and non-prescription pain relief (p0.01 each).”
The authors write that the association between medical cannabis and depression, cocaine use disorder and non-medical pain relief suggests it could have been prescribed for those conditions, or used on patient initiative to treat these problems. However, they acknowledge that the national survey data doesn’t provide enough information for them to draw such conclusions.
This study repeatedly points out that there is no conclusive data regarding the health effects and risks of cannabis. Rhee also stressed this to Marijuana Moment.
He said that medical cannabis was becoming more popular. “But, it is not clear if long-term medical benefits or harms can be found for many medical conditions. Future research is needed to determine if medical cannabis is safe and effective.
Although cannabis is not thought to cause overdose deaths, the study does show that there are unintended consequences such as developing psychosis or motor vehicle accidents.
Even though medical marijuana is still being used, federal data last month revealed that U.S. teens have stopped using cannabis in the past three months.
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The post US Medical Marijuana Use has Doubled, Study from Department Of Veterans Affairs Officials Discovers originally appeared on Marijuana Moment.
