A recent study said that 40.3 percent of Cancer Patients are using marijuana. The study also found that the numbers are increasing over time.

Kathryn Ries Tringale, the co-author of the Study who is from the University of California San Diego, said, “Prospective clinical trials are needed to quantify the efficacy of marijuana in cancer-specific pain as well as the risk of opioid misuse in this patient population.”

The survey was conducted from 2004 to 2014 and was compiled for respondents who were 20-years-old to 6-years-old.

MD Jona Hattangadi-Gluth, the chief of the central nervous system tumor and liver tumor services at the UC San Diego Health said, “Medical marijuana legalization has previously been associated with a reduction in hospitalizations related to opioid dependence or abuse, suggesting that if patients are, in fact, substituting marijuana for opioids, this may introduce an opportunity for reducing opioid-related morbidity and mortality,”

MD Jona added, “Of course, it will also be important to identify risks and adverse effects of marijuana, which has not previously been studied in large randomized clinical trials, given it’s scheduling as a class 1 controlled substance.”

There were 19,604 respondents for the survey who were aged 20 to 60 years old, there were also 826 patients who were diagnosed with cancer (mean age, 47.4 years; 66.7% women), researchers propensity score-matched it with 1,652 non-cancer controls (mean age, 46.7 years; 66% women).

The study concluded that “This population‐based analysis revealed a considerable proportion of respondents with cancer self‐reporting marijuana use (40.3%) and a significantly higher prevalence of opioid use among respondents with cancer.”