Millions of Americans support medical marijuana for reasons that have not been proven by research, according to a new study.
More than a third of the population see cannabis as being beneficial for health, a nationally representative survey by the University of California, San Francisco shows.
However, while many rightly understood that it can treat pain and epilepsy, many of the benefits that people cited are not proven to be true.
Most of that third believed cannabis is not addictive and its secondhand smoke is safer than secondhand smoke from tobacco – two things which remain unproven.
There is also no evidence, contrary to what many believed, that the drug has a meaningful impact on insomnia, depression or anxiety.
Lead author Salomeh Keyhani, MD, warns many of these misconceptions likely come from aggressive unregulated marketing by the cannabis industry as more and more states legalize the drug for both recreational and medicinal use.
More than a third of the US sees cannabis as beneficial for health, a nationally representative survey by the University of California, San Francisco shows. But the reasons they cite aren’t proven
More than half of the United States (30 states) has legalized medicinal marijuana, with many more soon to come. Canada will legalize recreational marijuana in October, following nine states and Washington, DC.
The shift has been welcomed by patients, lawmakers, and recreational consumers alike. The amount of Americans consuming the drug doubled between 2004 and 2014, to 13.3 percent. Changing the law to tax marijuana allowed states to cash in: Washington and Colorado, for example, rake in $1 billion a year.
Medicinally, use is restricted to certain things per state. Most allow it for cancer and HIV/AIDS patients to alleviate pain. Some have approved the drug for ALS, some for epilepsy, and some for multiple sclerosis.
But Dr Keyhani, an internist and health services researcher, was concerned that the push to promote the product as it becomes legalized has blurred the lines between what we know, what we don’t know, what we suspect, and what we are dubious about.
‘I live in the Bay Area and it’s very common to see people smoking marijuana in public areas,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘There doesn’t seem to be the same stigma/concern towards secondhand marijuana smoke as there is towards tobacco smoke. It made me think about public perceptions towards marijuana use.’
The fact that the cannabis industry has fast grown into a multi-billion dollar operation also gave Dr Keyhani pause.
‘On the internet and via media there is lots of inaccurate information being communicated to the public. I wondered how this was impacting public perceptions.’
To assess the public’s understanding, Dr Keyhani’s team surveyed 16,280 people online. Among the 9,003 that replied, the average age was 48 years old, with 52 percent women, 64 percent white, 16 percent Hispanic, 12 percent black, and the rest of other racial groups.
Most of them (81 percent) saw marijuana as beneficial in some way or another – something the team did not dispute. The drug has been shown to be beneficial for pain management, as many cited, and managing seizures in epilepsy patients.
However, many of the most commonly-cited benefits are not known to be true.
Just under half of those surveyed (46.8 percent) said it offers relief from anxiety, stress and depression – which is not proven, aside from the fact that users feel a sense of momentary relief in the immediate aftermath of consuming marijuana.
While most (76 percent) said marijuana may be addictive 22.4 percent believe it is not addictive – something not proven to be true.
A significant number (13.5 percent) believed marijuana to be better for health than alcohol.
‘Although excessive alcohol use is associated with many health risks, moderate alcohol intake may prevent coronary heart disease,’ she writes in the study, adding: ‘[H]owever, not enough data exist to support the notion that marijuana use in any form prevents health problems.’
The study highlights particular concerns about smoking marijuana and secondhand marijuana smoke being dismissed.
Twenty-nine percent said smoking the drug largely improves health, 18 percent believe secondhand marijuana smoke is harmless, and 7.6 percent believe inhaling the smoke is harmless for children.
‘Despite insufficient evidence for potential harms from daily marijuana smoking, media coverage of existing studies with low cumulative exposure may be creating the impression among the public that smoking marijuana, even on a daily basis, is harmless,’ Dr Keyhani writes, adding that ‘inhalation of particulate matter in any form (for example, breathing smog or secondhand tobacco smoke or smoking) is associated with increased cardiovascular risk.’
Dr Keyhani concedes that changing the tide will be complicated. There is not enough research done on the matter, nor enough research funding to clarify these confusions.
But, she says, there is enough to communicate to the general public that there are gaps in what we know.
‘We need public health campaigns similar to what we have for tobacco and alcohol to inform the public,’ Dr Keyhani told DailyMail.com.
She hopes the study, published today by the journal the Annals of Internal Medicine, will garner ‘more investment in research to expand the evidence base and more investment in public health education.’