The New York Times – To treat their pain, anxiety and sleep problems, millions of Americans turn to cannabis, which is now legal in 40 states for medical use.
But a new review of 15 years of research concludes that the evidence of its benefits is often weak or inconclusive, and that nearly 30 percent of medical cannabis patients meet criteria for cannabis use disorder.
“Pain is a leading reason people use medical cannabis, but the review found no evidence to indicate that cannabis could ease acute pain.”
“The evidence does not support the use of cannabis or cannabinoids at this point for most of the indications that folks are using it for,” said Dr. Michael Hsu, an addiction psychiatrist and clinical instructor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the lead author of the review, which was published last month in the medical journal JAMA.
The analysis arrives amid a surging acceptance and normalization of cannabis products, a $32 billion industry.
For the review, addiction experts at academic medical centers across the country studied more than 2,500 clinical trials, guidelines and surveys conducted mostly in the United States and Canada.
They found a wide gulf between the health purposes for which the public seeks out cannabis and what gold-standard science shows about its effectiveness.
“Researchers found that doctors do not have a firm understanding of medical cannabis.”
The researchers distinguished between medical cannabis, sold at dispensaries, and pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoids — the handful of medicines approved by the Food and Drug Administration with formulations containing either low-grade THC, a psychoactive compound, or CBD, a nonintoxicating compound.
Those medicines, including Marinol, Syndros and Cesamet, are available by prescription at conventional pharmacies and have had good results in easing chemotherapy-related nausea, stimulating the appetite of patients with debilitating illnesses like H.I.V./AIDS, and easing some pediatric seizure disorders …
HEADLINE HEALTH has posted repeatedly on the dangers of marijuana use:
Marijuana Dependence Linked to Higher Risk of Death
As America’s Marijuana Use Grows, So Do the Harms
Cannabis use linked to a doubled risk of heart disease death, new study finds
As Cannabis Users Age, Health Risks Appear To Grow
Shameless Cannabis Industry Happy To Sell Pot To Pregnant Women
What is ‘scromiting’? These are symptoms of condition linked to frequent marijuana use
