Chronic Pain

An estimated one in five people worldwide suffers from some form of a chronic pain. The most common is neuropathic pain, which is typical for patients with a wide range of diseases from diabetes to various forms of cancer to multiple sclerosis and AIDS.

What Synthetic Pills Can Do

The chronic pain is usually treated with analgesics (e.g. opioids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs – NSAIDs). However, they are often ineffective and have a number of potential dangerous side effects including heart attack, hepatotoxicity or even death caused by overdosing.

Patients Seek Cannabis

Statistics prove that patients with chronic pain are often using cannabis to ease themselves. There is an increasing number of studies suggesting that inhalation of cannabis can alleviate chronic pain.

There is a good few clinical tests that were mainly conducted in California on HIV patients. Other studies, such as the one by scientists from McGill University, found out that inhalation of cannabis reduces pain, supports sleep and mitigates anxiety of patients with chronic pain.

In 2011, British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology published a summary of a body of research on cannabis and chronic pain. There is one particular quote that makes the point: “Cannabinoids can be seen as compounds suitable for the treatment of chronic pain including fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis.”

In states where medical cannabis is legal, an increasing number of physicians prescribes cannabis as a safer alternative to opiates in the treatment of chronic pain. Recent studies also suggest that mutual application of cannabis and opiates can strengthen the effects of both without serious side effects.