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Medical Cannabis by the Numbers

States Recognizing the Medical Value of Cannabis

  • 36 states have effective medical cannabis laws.
  • 13 states have laws pertaining to low-THC, high-CBD cannabis.
  • 0 states have repealed effective medical cannabis laws.
  • In total, 49 states acknowledge the medical benefits of cannabis.

Medical Cannabis and Opioids

  • 64% decrease in opioid use among chronic pain patients in Michigan who used medical cannabis1
  • 48% reduction in patients’ opioid use after three months of medical cannabis treatment2
  • 78% of patients either reduced or stopped opioid use altogether3
  • 1,826 fewer doses of painkillers on average per year, per state, for patients participating in Medicare Part D4

Prescription Medications

  • Nearly 247,000 people died in the United States from overdoses involving prescription opioids from 1999 to 2019. Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids more than quadrupled from 1999 to 2019.5
  • 20% of prescriptions are “off label” — prescribed for a condition for which they are not FDA-approved.6
  • 0 people have died from cannabis overdoses in all of recorded history.

Number of Patients 

  • 2% of a state’s population, on average, enrolls in the medical cannabis program.7
  • In 2019, health care providers across the U.S. wrote more than 153 million prescriptions for opioid pain medication—a rate of 46.7 prescriptions per 100 people.8
  • 24% of the U.S. population took three or more prescription drugs in the past 30 days.9

Qualifying Conditions 

  • 35 states’ programs include a general category for severe or chronic pain or allow cannabis if opiates have been or could be prescribed for the condition.
  • 34 states include PTSD as a qualifying condition. Alaska and South Dakota are the only exceptions. 

Research

  • 10,000 studies were reviewed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which led them to find:10
    • Conclusive or substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective in the treatment of chronic pain, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms; 
    • No link between smoking cannabis and lung cancer; and
    • No gateway effect.
  • 50% of Crohn’s patients who used medical cannabis entered complete remission and 45% found significant improvement in symptoms.11
  • 75% reduction in symptom scores were reported when PTSD patients were using cannabis compared to when they were not.12
  • Hundreds of thousands of patients suffering from HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, seizure disorders, chronic, severe, and persistent pain, and other debilitating illnesses find that cannabis provides relief from their symptoms. 

Support for Allowing Medical Cannabis

  • 76% of doctors13
  • 93% of Americans14
  • 83% of veterans15

1 KF Boehnke, et al., “Medical Cannabis Use Is Associated With Decreased Opiate Medication Use in a Retrospective Cross-Sectional Survey of Patients With Chronic Pain,” Journal of Pain, June 2016. 
2 Staci A. Gruber, et al., “Splendor in the Grass? A Pilot Study Assessing the Impact of Medical Marijuana on Executive Function,” Front. Pharmacol. 13 October 2016, Vol. 7.
3 “The Cannabis and Opioid Survey,” Healer.com, 4 October 2016.
4 Ashley C. Bradford et al., “Medical Marijuana Laws Reduce Prescription Medication Use In Medicare Part D,” Health Aff. July 2016, Vol. 35 no. 7.
5 “Drug Overdose Overview,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, available at https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/deaths/prescription/overview.html.
6 Radley, David C., Finkelstein Stan N., and Stafford, Randall S., “Off-label Prescribing Among Office-Based Physicians," Archives of Internal Medicine 166 (9), 2006: 1021–1026.
7 www.mpp.org/issues/medical-marijuana/state-by-state-medical-marijuana-laws/medical-marijuana-patient-numbers/
8 “U.S. Opioid Dispensing Rate Maps,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019, available at https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/rxrate-maps/index.html.
9 “Health, United States,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019, table 39.
10 “The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research,” National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, January 2017.
11 Timna Naftali, et al., "Treatment of Crohn’s Disease with Cannabis: An Observational Study,” Israel Medical Association Journal (2011).
12 Greer, GR, et al., “PTSD symptom reports of patients evaluated for the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Program,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 2014 January-March;46(1):73-7.
13 Journal of New England Medicine survey, February 2013.
14 Quinnipiac University Poll, March 2019.
15 The American Legion, “Survey shows veteran households support research of medical cannabis,” November 2017.

 

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