79% of Florida Medical Cannabis Patients Reported Reducing or Stopping Pain Medications | Research

The takeaway

Among 2,183 Florida medical cannabis patients, 79% who previously used pain medications reported either cessation or reduction after starting medical cannabis, and most rated cannabis as important to their quality of life.

Pain management clinicians; medical cannabis program evaluators; patients considering medical cannabis for pain.

79% of prior pain medication users reported cessation or reduction after cannabis

What the researchers found

61% of patients used pain medications before cannabis. Of those, 93% reported a change in pain medication use after starting cannabis, with 79% reporting cessation or reduction. Health functioning improved in pain, physical functioning, and social functioning domains. Most patients rated cannabis as important to their quality of life.

Why it matters

Florida has one of the largest medical cannabis programs in the US. This large survey provides real-world data on how patients perceive the impact of medical cannabis on their pain management and overall functioning.

The numbers in context

2,183 patients. Demographics: 95% ages 20-70, 54% female, 85% White, 47% employed. Conditions: Pain+Mental Health 47.92%, Mental Health 28.86%, Pain 9.07%. Prior pain medication use: 60.98%. Changed pain meds after cannabis: 93.36%. Ceased or reduced pain meds: 79%. 11.47% reported improved functioning.

How the study worked

Cross-sectional survey of 2,183 medical cannabis patients recruited from dispensaries across Florida. Included 66 items covering demographics, health, medication use, and SF-36 health functioning assessed before and after cannabis initiation.

What this study cannot tell us

Cross-sectional self-report design with no verification of medication changes. Selection bias: patients recruited from dispensaries are already committed to cannabis. No control group. Retrospective assessment of pre-cannabis functioning is subject to recall bias.

How to read the evidence

Moderate: large sample from a real-world setting, though limited by cross-sectional self-report design and dispensary recruitment bias.

When this study was published

Published in 2022.

The bigger picture

This adds to the growing body of patient-reported evidence suggesting medical cannabis may reduce opioid use. Like other observational studies, it contrasts with RCTs that have not confirmed opioid-sparing effects, highlighting the gap between patient experience and controlled trial evidence.

Questions still open

Would medical record verification confirm the self-reported medication changes? Do the opioid reductions persist long-term? Are certain patient subgroups more likely to successfully reduce pain medications with cannabis?

Common questions

Do medical cannabis patients actually use fewer pain pills?

In this survey, 79% reported reducing or stopping pain medications. However, these are self-reported changes without medical record verification, and patients recruited from dispensaries may be more positive about cannabis than the general patient population.

What conditions did patients use medical cannabis for?

The most common combination was pain plus mental health conditions (48%), followed by mental health alone (29%) and pain alone (9%). This reflects the overlap between chronic pain and mental health conditions.

Read the original research

Medical Cannabis Patients Report Improvements in Health Functioning and Reductions in Opiate Use.

Substance use & misuse, 57(13), 1883-1892

View on PubMed ↗Publisher’s paper ↗

Citation

Pritchett, Carolyn E; Flynn, Heather; Wang, Yuxia; Polston, James E. (2022). Medical Cannabis Patients Report Improvements in Health Functioning and Reductions in Opiate Use.. Substance use & misuse, 57(13), 1883-1892. https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2022.2107673