Study: Medicinal cannabis can be more effective than opioids for pain in some patients

Pain is one of the top reasons for medicinal cannabis use around the world. It is by far the number one reason patients tell us why they use cannabis. This study wanted to examine how medicinal cannabis compared to other prescriptions for pain relief. It was published in the journal Pain in January 2025.

The study included 440 patients certified for medical cannabis by pain specialists. The patients reported outcomes that were collected in the University of Pittsburgh Patient Outcomes Repository for Treatment. 157 of those were co-prescribed opioids

Results:

At 3 months, 38.6% were responders, based on clinically meaningful improvements in pain, function, or global impression of change, and maintained this response at 6 months

In the 157 patients who were coprescribed opioids, at 6 months there was a mean 39.3% decrease in morphine milligram equivalents

logistic regression revealed an odds ratio of 2.6 in favor of medical marijuana vs medication treatment (P < 0.01)

In short, this study found that almost 39% of pain patients responded positively to medicinal cannabis treatment after 3 and 6 months of treatment. In those patients who were co-prescribed opioids and cannabis, they were able to reduce their opioid consumption by almost 40%. In those patients who were only prescribed non-cannabis treatment (non-opioid and/or opioid), their response rate was actually a little lower (~35%).

Authors' conclusion:

Medical marijuana was comparatively more effective than prescription medications for the treatment of chronic pain at 3 months, although the populations compared were slightly different.

The article abstract is here at PubMed.

Source:

Wasan AD, O'Connell B, DeSensi R, Bernstein C, Pickle E, Zemaitis M, Levy O, Jeong JH, Cooper GF, Douaihy A. The comparative effectiveness of medicinal cannabis for chronic pain versus prescription medication treatment. Pain. 2025 Jan 24. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003506. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39878633.