Medical cannabis significantly safer for elderly with chronic pain than Opioids

[Hunter]

Medical cannabis significantly safer for elderly with chronic pain than Opioids

“While older patients represent a large and growing population of medical cannabis users, few studies have addressed how it affects this particular group, which also suffers from dementia, frequent falls, mobility problems, and hearing and visual impairments,” says Prof. Victor Novack, M.D., a professor of medicine in the BGU Faculty of Health Sciences (FOHS), and head of the Soroka Cannabis Clinical Research Institute. Novack is also the BGU Gussie Krupp Chair in Internal Medicine.

“After monitoring patients 65 and older for six months, we found medical cannabis treatment significantly relieves pain and improves quality of life for seniors with minimal side effects reported.”

BGU researchers surveyed 2,736 patients 65 years and older who received medical cannabis through “Tikun Olam,” the largest Israeli medical cannabis supplier. More than 60 percent were prescribed medical cannabis due to the pain, particularly pain associated with cancer. After six months of treatment, more than 93 percent of 901 respondents reported their pain dropped from a median of eight to four on a 10-point scale. Close to 60 percent of patients who originally reported “bad” or “very bad” quality of life upgraded to “good” or “very good” after six months. More than 70 percent of patients surveyed reported moderate to significant improvement in their condition.

[WestPac]

Hmm. And we are in a national “Opioid Crisis.”
~115 people die each day. https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis