A quarter of cannabis consumers are doing so to relieve pain, according to the results of an online poll conducted by US medical cannabis company Nugg MD. 23% said they use weed to deal with symptoms of anxiety, and 18% used it to deal with stress.
Of the 6550 people who responded to the survey only 13% chose recreational as their primary reason for using cannabis. Depression was the reason given by 12% of respondents, insomnia and “other” were the final reasons, at 7% and 2% respectively.
The poll asked participants which flavours and aromas from a list they most preferred – ‘fruity’ was the clear favourite with 27%, followed by ‘sweet’ with 19%, ‘earthy’ and ‘citrus’ were each the favourite flavours and aromas of 18% of the respondents.
When asked “Which of the following effects do you prefer?” relaxed and euphoric was chosen by 30% and 24% as their favourites, followed by ‘energetic’ 15%, ‘uplifted’ 13%, and creative 10%. The least favourite was ‘sleepy’ which was chosen by 8% as their preferred way to feel after consuming cannabis.
The poll results also showed that people don’t have a favourite time to take their cannabis, with 48% choosing ‘anytime’, against 29% choosing the evening as their best part of the day to medicate. Afternoon and morning were only selected by 5% and 4% respectively. Talking to Marijuana Moment Deb Tharp from Nuggf MD said “The data suggests that many millions of U.S. adults are using cannabis for health and wellness reasons, even when they do not have a medical cannabis recommendation.”
The study supports evidence that people in the UK also turn to cannabis for pain relief. In 2019, The British Pain Society published results from a survey that found 1.4 million adults in the UK use recreational cannabis for chronic pain management.
