Boston, MA: Most military service veterans report quality of life improvements following their use of medicinal cannabis, and nearly half say that they use it to reduce their use of either prescription or over-the-counter medications, according to survey data published in the journal Clinical Therapeutics.
Over 500 military veterans participated in an anonymous survey. Participants in the survey were primarily recruited from Massachusetts, which permits the use of cannabis for both medical use and for those ages 21 and older.
Ninety-one percent of respondents said that “medicinal cannabis treatment helped them to experience a greater quality of life.” Nearly half said that cannabis helped them reduce their use of alcohol and/or prescription or over-the-counter medications. Twenty-one percent of respondents said their use of medical cannabis resulted in a reduction in their opioid use – a finding that is consistent with dozens of other studies.
“Many of the respondents reported that medicinal cannabis treatment helped them to experience a greater quality of life, fewer psychological symptoms, fewer physical symptoms, and to use less alcohol, fewer medications, less tobacco, and fewer opioids,” authors concluded. “The present findings indicate that medicinal cannabis can potentially play a harm-reduction role, helping veterans to use fewer pharmaceutical medications and other substances. … These findings should inform clinicians who work with the veteran population, as cannabis may be an effective means of helping veterans.”
Full text of the study, “Medicinal cannabis use and an alternative to prescription and over-the-counter medication use among US veterans,” appears in Clinical Therapeutics. Additional information is available from the NORML Fact Sheet, ‘Marijuana and Veterans Issues.’