Sydney, Australia: A substantial portion of patients living with HIV or AIDS use cannabis therapeutically to treat symptoms of the disease and/or the side-effects of prescription medications, according to survey data published in the current issue of the journal AIDS Care.
Investigators at the University of New South Wales, National Center in HIV Research, conducted face-to-face interviews with 408 patients with HIV or AIDS over a one-year period. Of the 408 participants, 244 (59.8 percent) reported having used cannabis during the past six months. Of these patients, 108 (44.3 percent) said they used it therapeutically.
Those who used cannabis medically were on average younger in age, had lower incomes, and had higher CD4/T-cell counts compared with those who reported only using pot recreationally.
Clinical trial data published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2003 also reported that cannabis use by HIV patients was associated with increased CD4/T-cell counts compared to non-users.
“These results show that a substantial proportion of people living with HIV/AIDS use marijuana for therapeutic purposes, despite substantial legal barriers, suggesting [that] marijuana represents another treatment option in their health management,” authors concluded.
Most recently, investigators at San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California’s Pain Clinical Research Center reported in the journal Neurology that inhaling cannabis significantly reduced HIV-associated neuropathy compared to placebo.
Previous surveys in the US and Canada indicate that an estimated 25 to 29 percent of HIV/AIDS patient use cannabis therapeutically. Survey data presented in 2004 at the XV International AIDS Conference in Thailand reported that HIV/AIDS patients who used medical marijuana were 3.3 times more likely to adhere to their anti-retroviral therapy regimens than non-cannabis users.
For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at (202) 483-5500. Full text of the study, “Marijuana as therapy for people living with HIV/AIDS: Social and health aspects,” appears in the February issue of AIDS Care.