Science says that medical marijuana improves the quality of life

All we want is a happy, productive, and healthy life, right? Who would have thought cannabis could play a key role? According to observational data published in the JAMA Network Open, patients suffering from pain, cancer, anxiety and insomnia report significant, sustained improvements in their health-related quality of life after using medical marijuana.

Consistent with numerous other studies, the authors reported that patients who used medicinal cannabis reported improvements in health-related quality of life, most of which lasted over time. Adverse events were rarely serious.

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The study was led by Thomas R. Arkell from the Center for Human Psychopharmacology at Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Australia. The research could significantly change the lives of millions of people with chronic diseases.

“This study suggests a favorable association between medical cannabis treatment and quality of life in patients with various medical conditions,” the authors said in the study. “However, clinical evidence of the effectiveness of cannabinoids remains limited and more high-quality studies are needed.

The warning about the relative incidence of adverse events demonstrates caution in prescribing THC and careful identification of patients with contraindications.

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Observational study data from chronically ill patients in the UK also showed that medical marijuana use is well tolerated and improves subjects’ health-related quality of life.

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With the passage of the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act (HR8454) in 2022, not only has the way medical marijuana is funded changed, but also what those funds are.

According to an analysis by Science magazine, between 2000 and 2018, US$1.56 billion was spent funding cannabis research in the US, Canada and the UK. An estimated half of the money was spent on understanding the recreational drug’s potential harms.

A little over $1 billion came from the largest funder, the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which allocated more money to research into cannabis abuse and its ill effects than to studies of cannabis and cannabis-derived chemicals therapeutic drug.

If you’re concerned about any of the things that the study says may help, you should have a conversation with your doctor.