Chronic Pain Patients Support Cannabis Access Expansion While Physicians Favor Restrictions, Study Finds

Those suffering from chronic pain are more in favor of policies that expand cannabis access compared to the physicians who provide their care, according to a study recently published in JAMA Network Open.

The research from Rutgers Health and other institutions, covered states where medical cannabis is legal and it included over 1,600 people with chronic pain and 1,000 physicians.

Individuals with chronic pain support the legalization of medical marijuana on the federal level the most (70.8%), followed by federal legalization of cannabis for adult use – a policy change favored by 54.9% of those asked.

The majority of chronic pain patients (64%) said they would like insurance cover cannabis treatment for their condition, while half of those asked (50.1%) said they would support policy change requiring states with medical cannabis programs to provide subsidies for people with low income.

Out of the four policies seeking to amend the cannabis landscape nationwide and statewide, physicians supported federal legalization of medical cannabis the most (59%).

Read Also: New Study Shows High Use Of Medical Cannabis For Chronic Pain And Arthritis In Older Patients

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Interestingly, physicians were more in favor of requiring patient registration with the state medical cannabis program to access medical cannabis than those suffering from chronic pain (68.1% vs. 49.2%, respectively).

Elizabeth Stone, a core faculty member at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and lead author of the study, said cannabis is unique in terms of the complicated policy landscape,” reported Newswise.

“Depending on what state you’re in, it could be that medical cannabis is legal, it could be that medical and recreational use are legal, it could be that neither is legal, but some things are decriminalized,” said Stone, who also serves as an instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “Overall, people with chronic pain were more supportive of the policies that would expand access to medical cannabis, and providers were more supportive of the policies that would restrict access to medical cannabis.”

Stone’s study is part of a National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded project that investigates the impacts of state medical cannabis policies on opioid-related outcomes for those suffering from chronic pain.

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