Baltimore, MD: Marijuana use is prevalent among patients suffering from chronic pain, many of whom are likely using the drug in order to self-medicate, according to findings published in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology.
Investigators at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland analyzed a total of 13,948 urine specimens from patients at 31 pain clinics in six states. A total of 10,922 specimens tested positive for at least one licit or illicit substance. Nine-hundred and sixty-seven samples (8.9 percent) tested positive for the presence of cannabis metabolites.
Authors speculated that the high prevalence of cannabis use within this patient population was likely due to “self-medication,” noting that marijuana has been found to possess both analgesic and sleep inducing properties. Investigators found that the prevalence of cannabis was three-times higher than that of cocaine (the second most commonly identified illicit substance), and that patients typically used pot in combination with opioids.
NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said that the findings provide further support for legislation legalizing the physician-supervised use of marijuana. “Currently, nearly ten percent of chronic pain patients are violating federal and likely state laws to try and gain some relief from their suffering,” he said. “Even more troubling, under cannabis prohibition, many of these same patients are being callously denied access to prescription pain medications, simply because they also use marijuana.”
According to case reports compiled by California NORML, a growing number of state-authorized medical marijuana patients are also being denied prescription pain medications because of their medicinal cannabis use.
“Chronic pain patients are being denied essential medications because of outdated and cruel federal restrictions on the use of cannabis, which has been shown to be effective in controlling pain and reducing patient’s dependency on dangerous narcotics,” California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer said. “It is unconscionable to force pain clinics to engage in this sort of pharmaceutical McCarthyism.”
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500, or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study “Urine drug testing of chronic pain patients: licit and illicit drug patterns,” appears in the October issue of the Journal of Analytical Toxicology.