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Study: Cannabis More Effective Than Prescribed Analgesics for Patients With Chronic Pain
Pittsburgh, PA: Chronic pain patients are more likely to respond favorably to cannabis than they are to prescription analgesics, according to data published in the journal Pain.
Researchers affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh assessed outcomes in 440 pain patients certified to consume medical cannabis products and 8,114 pain patients prescribed traditional analgesics.
They reported that those in the cannabis-treatment cohort were slightly more likely than controls to experience clinically meaningful improvements in their pain. Investigators further reported that subjects who used both cannabis and opioids were more likely to reduce their opioid use over time as compared to those who did not. “Our results do point to possible use [of cannabis] as an adjunct in trying to wean opioids successfully,” they wrote.
The study’s authors concluded: “In sum, … we found that medical marijuana was comparatively more effective than prescription medication treatment for chronic pain, with the odds of responding being 2.6 times higher in the medical marijuana group and having twice the predicted probability of a positive response. While we found that medical marijuana was comparatively more effective, we cannot extrapolate to conclude that medical marijuana is likely more effective in other populations, particularly because we compared two different (albeit similar) populations. Because the rate of response in the control group (34.9 percent) was very similar to the marijuana group (38.6 percent) at three months, a more conservative interpretation of our results is that medical marijuana is at least as effective as prescription medications for chronic pain.”
Data published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that nearly one in three patients with chronic pain use cannabis as an analgesic agent and many of those who do substitute it in place of opioids.
The full text of the study, “The comparative effectiveness of medicinal cannabis for chronic pain versus prescription medication treatment,” appears in Pain.
Missouri: Officials Expunge Over 140,000 Marijuana-Related Convictions
Jefferson City, MO: State officials have expunged more than 140,000 marijuana-related convictions over the past two years, according to updated data provided by the Missouri Supreme Court.
Voters in 2022 approved an initiative legalizing the adult-use marijuana market. Provisions in the law called upon courts to automatically review and vacate eligible marijuana-related convictions. Since then, courts have reviewed over 307,000 cases. Forty-six percent of those cases have been deemed eligible for legal relief, resulting in 140,429 expungements to date.
Courts in several counties are now reviewing paper records to identify additional cases eligible for expungement relief.
Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws providing explicit pathways to either expunge (or otherwise set aside) the records of those with low-level marijuana convictions. According to publicly available data compiled by NORML, state and local officials have issued over 100,000 pardons and more than two million marijuana-related expungements since 2018.
Texas: Lawmakers in Two Cities Set aside Voter-approved Marijuana Measures
Bastrop, TX: City council members in Bastrop (population: 11,700) and Lockhart (population: 15,300) have declined to implement voter-approved ballot initiatives that sought to end marijuana possession arrests within the cities’ limits.
Their decisions follow legal actions taken by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who sued city officials in Dallas for implementing a similar ordinance.
Voters in all three cities overwhelmingly passed municipal ballot measures on election day that sought to halt local police from making low-level marijuana possession arrests.
In recent years, voters in several additional Texas cities, including Austin, have approved similar depenalization ordinances. Although the Attorney General has also filed suit against several of those cities, his office has thus far been unsuccessful in winning judgments against them.
State law defines marijuana possession of two ounces or less as a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail, a $2,000 fine, and a criminal record. According to data compiled by Texas NORML, police made an estimated 219,000 marijuana-related arrests between 2017 and 2021. Ninety-seven percent of those arrested were charged with possession only. Fifty-six percent of those arrested were under 25 years of age.
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