A new study by Prof. Pesach Shvartzman of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has shown that medical marijuana users experience significant pain relief and improvement in function, while suffering only minor side effects.
Prof. Shvartzman explained that while medical cannabis has been legal for a decade for those dealing with pain and other issues, there wasn’t any information about the users themselves.
This study was the first to look at the characteristics of patients who have permission from the Israel Health Ministry to receive treatment with medical marijuana. Over the last decade, marijuana therapy has become popular and accepted with approximately 20,000 registered users.
From the article:
“The study examined more than 2,000 cancer and non-cancer patients using medical marijuana with a focus on their socioeconomic characteristics, dosages, previous treatment, treatment safety and side effects, as well as overall treatment effectiveness. Patients were interviewed by telephone in the first three months of treatment and subsequently every four months for two years.
Users reported in later interviews that their pain, nausea, anxiety, appetite and general feeling of wellness had improved. Fewer than one in 10 stopped taking the drug due to side effects or ineffectiveness after the first interview, and only six percent after the second interview.”
Almost all of the study’s participants (99.6 %) petitioned for the cannabis prescription after trying conventional medications that didn’t work for them, while more than half (56%) were using cannabis because they wanted a drug with fewer side effects. And a little more than three-quarters (77%) experienced minor side effects like dry mouth (61%), increased hunger (60%), or elevated moods (44%).
Shvartzman’s findings were presented in May at the Sixth International Jerusalem Conference on Health Policy, organized by the Israel National Institute for Health Policy Research.
Source: Israel 21c
