Medical cannabis use in the United States: a retrospective database study

作者：V. Kishan Mahabir, Jamil J. Merchant, Christopher J. Smith, Alisha Garibaldi · 发表于：Journal of Cannabis Research · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1186/s42238-020-00038-w · 被引用次数：72 · 研究领域：Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research、Homelessness and Social Issues、Neuroscience of respiration and sleep

INTRODUCTION: Growing interest in the medicinal properties of cannabis has led to an increase in its use to treat medical conditions, and the establishment of state-specific medical cannabis programs. Despite medical cannabis being legal in 33 states and the District of Colombia, there remains a paucity of data characterizing the patients accessing medical cannabis programs. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed a registry with data from 33 medical cannabis evaluation clinics in the United States, owned and operated by CB2 Insights. Data were collected primarily by face-to-face interviews for patients seeking medical cannabis certification between November 18, 2018 and March 18, 2020. Patients were removed from the analysis if they did not have a valid date of birth, were less than 18, or did not have a primary medical condition reported; a total of 61,379 patients were included in the analysis. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics expressed as a mean (standard deviation (SD)) or median (interquartile range (IQR)) as appropriate for continuous variables, and number (percent) for categorical variables. Statistical tests performed across groups included t-tests, chi-squared tests and regression. RESULTS: The average age of patients was 45.5, 54.8% were male and the majority were Caucasian (87.5%). Female patients were significantly older than males (47.0 compared to 44.6). Most patients reported cannabis experience prior to seeking medical certification (66.9%). The...