United States: A research paper shows medical pot users display comparable addiction patterns to recreational users or show higher rates.
Medical marijuana consumers demonstrated higher rates of cannabis use disorder when compared to recreational users who use weed, according to research that appeared in JAMA Psychiatry on Jan. 22, as reported by HealthDay.
Patients using medical marijuana used more days of marijuana, according to research findings.
Study Findings and Implications
The research team led by Dr. Nora Volkow discovered that medical cannabis possession carries similar addiction risk factors to recreational pot use.
“Clinicians should consider addiction risk before recommending medical cannabis and, if they do, should monitor for CUD [cannabis use disorder] emergence,” the researchers added.
Recommendations for Healthcare Providers
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that cannabis use disorder occurs in thirty percent of weed users as they cannot stop using cannabis despite its damaging impact on their health and social well-being.
An analysis of federal drug use and health survey data from 2021-2022 measured whether medical marijuana users face identical addiction risks when compared to recreational users.
Recent cannabis use studies revealed that 73,000 adults reported recreational use with recreational purposes as the only reason for around 84% of those individuals. The research showed medical cannabis users as 9% of the total population, while patients who combined medical with recreational use made up 5%.
About 35% of survey participants displayed cannabis use disorder symptoms as reported according to the survey protocol researchers noted.
Those who used medical marijuana were more likely to have problematic use, results show:
- Men 18 to 34 who used medical cannabis exhibited severe cannabis use disorder at rates of 14% for medical users and 13% for medical and recreational users, while the rate among recreational users was greater than 8%.
- Women 18 to 34 who used both medical and recreational marijuana experienced severe cannabis use disorder in 7% of medical users and 13% of medical and recreational users but only 6% of recreational users.
- Among men aged 35 to 49, the medical user group demonstrated a 5% rate for severe cannabis use disorder, while the medical and recreational user group showed a 7% rate, with the recreational user group at 4%. This demographic research revealed that 4% of users with medical and recreational use experience severe Cannabis use disorder, while medical and nonmedical user groups contained 2% of such cases.
Patients who used medical marijuana used cannabis for more total days throughout the last 12 months.
Medical marijuana patients combined with medical/recreational users engaged in drug consumption 40% to 70% greater than recreational users, according to researcher findings.
Male patients aged 18 to 24 demonstrated an average medical marijuana consumption of 217 days annually, which is more than users of either medical and recreational products at 212 days or recreational users at 154 days annually, as reported by HealthDay.
“Higher cannabis use disorder prevalence among adults with medical-only use might reflect more frequent cannabis use,” the researchers concluded in their paper.