Do characteristics of marijuana use correspond to overall health levels for medical marijuana patients?

ABSTRACT

The current study assesses how characteristics of medical marijuana use are related to general health status and past year change in health. An analytic sample of 312 patients were recruited from 16 medical marijuana dispensaries across Los Angeles, California. Patients completed a short intercept survey and a longer patient survey. Surveys asked information about health, marijuana use behaviors, preferred ways to use marijuana, marijuana recommendation, and sociodemographic information. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling of patients nested within dispensaries. For general health status, patients who smoke marijuana, have more medical conditions for which they received their medical marijuana recommendation, and use marijuana more times per day report lower levels of general health. The number of days using marijuana per month was related to worse health in the past year. Medical marijuana use does not appear to improve overall health status according to the results presented here, but is limited by the cross-sectional nature of the study. As the legalization of medical marijuana use continues to grow across the United States, identifying how marijuana is related to health will allow physicians to better determine who may benefit from its use.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical Marijuana
• health status
• chronic pain
• marijuana use

Funding

This project was supported by the grant number R01-DA032715 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or the National Institutes of Health.