Study shows medical cannabis enrollment has quadrupled |

As recreational and medical legalization sweeps the country, a recent study found that enrollment in medical-only programs quadrupled between 2016 and 2020.

The study of US medical cannabis trends also examined qualifying conditions listed by patients and found that enrollment increased in states with only medical cannabis. States that also offer recreational cannabis use fell or remained flat. Overall, chronic pain was the most common condition reported in applications.

This research project, titled US Trends in Registration for Medical Cannabis and Reasons for Use From 2016 to 2020 and published with Annals of Internal Medicine, was led by lead author Kevin Boehnke, a chronic pain expert at the University of Michigan. His goal with the study was to examine medical enrollment specifically, not cannabis use overall, to determine cannabis trends.

While working on the study, he asked himself, “How many people use cannabis for pain? Why do people actually consume? [medical cannabis]?”

With these questions in mind, Boehnke began a year-long investigation into what that filing and cannabis use looked like, using public data from reports and government websites, meeting notes, state officials, and documents he had access to thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. He was particularly interested in what the trends were like as they shifted amid changing medical and recreational laws across the country.

He also published another study on the subject, Qualifying Conditions Of Medical Cannabis License Holders In The United States, in HealthAffairs in 2019, but this new study is even broader in scope with more access to data.

“This changing state policy is having a dramatic impact on how many people might or might be able to use cannabis for medicinal purposes,” Boehnke said of the study, according to STAT News.

STAT News also spoke to Byron Adinoff, a drug addiction researcher and President of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, about the study. He was pleased with the results and hopes for more studies that will show how important medicinal cannabis treatment can be. Although he admits that, like many doctors, he has long hesitated to prescribe medicinal cannabis, his views have changed when such information has become available.

“I didn’t really take it, but you know, after speaking to several hundred people who have benefited, you’re starting to think maybe there’s something to it,” he says. “Hopefully it will lead organized medicine and doctors individually to pay increasing attention to this issue,” he added.

Another key piece of data was how much patient enrollment has increased in Oklahoma. In this state there was more than one significant jump to report. According to the study, one in 10 residents in the state is a medical cannabis patient, a record number. This could be because the state does not require specific medical conditions to qualify for a health card. You can obtain medicinal cannabis for any condition that a doctor deems appropriate.

All other medical states in the US currently have a list of qualifying conditions that patients are entitled to when it comes to medicinal cannabis. Chronic pain is legal in most states, so it’s no surprise that it’s high on the list of what patients take medication for.

STAT News also spoke to Silvia Martins, a substance use epidemiologist at Columbia University, who hopes this study can lead to more confidence in treating chronic pain with cannabis.

“Even for chronic pain we need more evidence, but for other types of disorders we need more evidence,” she says of the information in the study.