Medical Weed Customers At Threat for Dependancy | Well being

FRIDAY, Jan. 24, 2025 (HealthDay Information) — Folks utilizing weed for medical functions are as possible – or extra – to change into hooked on hashish as leisure tokers, a brand new research says.

Of us utilizing medical marijuana have been extra more likely to have hashish use dysfunction than those that get excessive recreationally, researchers reported in a research printed Jan. 22 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Medical marijuana sufferers additionally had extra days of weed use than leisure customers, researchers discovered.

“These findings recommend that medically really useful hashish just isn’t related to diminished dependancy threat in contrast with nonmedical use,” the analysis workforce led by Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse, concluded.

“Clinicians ought to think about dependancy threat earlier than recommending medical hashish and, in the event that they do, ought to monitor for CUD [cannabis use disorder] emergence,” the researchers added.

To see if medical customers run the identical dependancy threat as leisure customers, researchers analyzed information from a federal survey on drug use and well being performed in 2021-2022.

Amongst almost 73,000 adults who reported latest hashish use, about 84% mentioned they received excessive solely for leisure functions. One other 9% reported medical-only use, and almost 6% mentioned they used each medically and recreationally.

Total, about 35% of your entire group had hashish use dysfunction, based mostly on the signs they reported within the survey, researchers mentioned.

Those that used medical marijuana have been extra more likely to have problematic use, outcomes present:

• About 14% of medical customers and 13% of medical/leisure customers amongst males 18 to 34 had extreme hashish use dysfunction, in contrast with greater than 8% of leisure customers.

• About 7% of medical customers and 12% of medical/ leisure customers amongst girls 18 to 34, had extreme hashish use dysfunction, in contrast with 6% of leisure customers.

• Amongst males 35 to 49, 5% of medical customers, almost 7% of medical/leisure customers, and 4% of leisure customers had extreme hashish use dysfunction. Amongst girls in the identical age group, 2% every of medical and nonmedical customers and 4% of these with each medical and leisure use had extreme hashish use dysfunction. 

Medical marijuana sufferers additionally tended to make use of weed extra days on common through the previous 12 months.

Medical and medical/leisure customers smoked a median 40% to 70% extra days every year than leisure tokers, researchers discovered.

For instance, 18- to 24-year-old males used medical marijuana 217 days on common, in contrast with 212 days for medical/leisure customers and 154 for purely leisure customers.

“Larger hashish use dysfunction prevalence amongst adults with medical-only use may replicate extra frequent hashish use,” the researchers concluded of their paper.

SOURCE: JAMA Psychiatry, Jan. 22, 2025

Medical marijuana sufferers must be conscious they run the identical threat of dependancy as individuals who use recreationally.