MJBizMag May-June 2021 - 48

WELLNESS OUTLOOK
Medical Marijuana Patients by Condition
HIV/AIDS
0.4%
Glacoma
0.7%
Chronic or severe pain
61%
Muscle
spasms
6%
Cachexia
0.4%
Cancer
3%
Note: Similar conditions have been grouped together.
Some patients may fall into more than one category.
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Source: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana,
Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island and Utah state MMJ programs.
Among states that publish the conditions patients cited when qualifying for medical marijuana cards, chronic pain was the most widely reported ailment.
Courtesy Photo
Epilepsy or
seizures
1%
All other
conditions
13%
Nausea
3%
PTSD
11%
A 2018 survey by Mayo Clinic
researchers of 62 health-care providers
in Minnesota (76% of them physicians)
found that 58% of respondents strongly
or somewhat agreed medical cannabis
was a legitimate therapy, while a majority
" believed that medical cannabis was
helpful for treating the qualifying medical
conditions of cancer, terminal illness
and intractable pain. "
A survey of 334 pain doctors published
in the Journal of Regional Anesthesia
and Pain Medicine last year found that a
majority believed medical cannabis was a
legitimate treatment for pain.
While many national physician groups
remain steadfastly opposed, state associations
have been more progressive on
medical cannabis. For example, after years
of opposition to medical cannabis, the
25,000-physician-strong Massachusetts
Medical Society changed course in December
2020 with a new policy recognizing
cannabis as a legitimate therapy option.
" I would like to see cannabis treated
... as something that is part of a person's
health and well-being, " said Jay Broadhurst,
chair of the society's committee on
public health and an assistant professor
of family medicine and community
health at the University of Massachusetts
Medical School.
While the progress being made might
spare future medical marijuana markets
the lack of doctors that has plagued
their predecessors, more can be done,
physicians said.
Weiner would like to see more
medical schools teach students about
the endocannabinoid system and have
48 Marijuana Business Magazine | May-June 2021
the federal government expand research
into cannabis to compile the kind of
evidence that doctors depend on in
their decision-making.
Wesson believes the best way to
change physician attitudes is through
education-and, to that end, the
cannabis industry should pass its
experience to physicians, he said.
" They can let physicians know more
about it: what conditions apply, what
conditions it helps and the many ways
in which it can be given. Also, things
like where people can get it and what the
approximate cost is going to be, " Wesson
said. " The more that we can educate
physicians, the more accepted it is going
to be. It's only a matter of time-a few
years-until it is an absolutely accepted
medication. "

MJBizMag May-June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of MJBizMag May-June 2021