How Does Medical Marijuana Help With and Treat Chronic Pain?

Below are some quick summaries of the results of studies into the use of medical marijuana for chronic pain. You can find links to these and other studies at the end of this article.

• A review of medical literature on marijuana and chronic pain from 1948 to March 2015 suggests that the efficacy of marijuana for treating chronic pain, neuropathic pain, and spasticity due to multiple sclerosis “is supported by high-quality evidence.”
• A number of clinical trials have demonstrated that smoking cannabis reduces neuropathic pain in patients with HIV by more than 30 percent compared to placebo. 
• Researchers at the University of California at San Diego reported that inhaled cannabis significantly reduced capsaicin-induced pain in healthy volunteers. Capsaicin is the compound found in chili peppers that makes them hot and spicy. 
• A University of California at Davis clinical trial showed that both high and low doses of inhaled cannabis reduced neuropathic pain in subjects unresponsive to standard pain therapies.
• Researchers at McGill University reported that smoked cannabis significantly relieved pain, sleep quality, and anxiety in participants with refractory pain for which conventional therapies had failed.
• Another clinical trial published in the National Library of Medicine showed that cannabis relieved pain sensitivity and increased pain tolerance in healthy subjects that had been exposed to painful stimuli.
• A 2015 study appearing in The Journal of Pain reported that vaporized cannabis provides “a dose-dependent reduction in diabetic peripheral neuropathy pain in patients with treatment-refractory pain.”
• A study undertaken in 2019 showed that cannabis could be an effective treatment option for both pain relief and insomnia and that 80% of participants found it was very or extremely helpful.
• In the above study, 88 percent of participants were able to stop taking opioids and 83 percent were able to reduce or stopped taking sleep aids.
• A review of more than 10,000 scientific studies by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that whole-plant cannabis is effective for the treatment of chronic pain in adults.
• In a 2016 clinical study, 44 percent of patients reported a reduction in the use of opiates. And a 2017 survey showed that 97 percent of respondents were able to decrease the amount of opioids they consume.

That might look like a lot of evidence, but there is plenty more where this came from. 

Oftentimes you’ll read that the evidence is insufficient and that more studies need to be undertaken to determine the true safety and efficacy of medical marijuana for the treatment of chronic pain. 

Yes, more study needs to be done, however, considering pain reduction is the number one reason that patients use medical marijuana, and considering the fact that marijuana is far safer than opioids and other pharmaceuticals used to treat pain, you might not want to wait around for more research results.