Exploring medicinal use of cannabis in a time of policy change in New Zealand.

Rychert, Marta; Wilkins, Chris; Parker, Karl; Graydon-Guy, Thomas

AIMS To explore patterns of medicinal cannabis use prior to implementation of the new Medicinal Cannabis Scheme (MCS) in New Zealand. METHODS An anonymous online convenience survey of 3,634 last-year medicinal users of cannabis promoted via Facebook™ from May to August 2019. RESULTS Fifty percent of the sample were female, 18% were Māori and the median age was 38 years. The medical conditions for which cannabis was most often used were pain (81%), sleep (66%) and mental health conditions (64%). Respondents perceived cannabis to be an effective therapy and reported reducing use of other pharmaceutical medicines. Fifty-two percent reported side effects from cannabis use, including increased appetite (29%), drowsiness (12%), eye irritation (11%), dependency (10%), memory impairment (10%) and lack of energy (9%). Smoking was the dominant route of administration. Nearly half (47%) had discussed their use of cannabis with a medical professional in the previous year, while 14% had requested a prescription and 5% accessed a prescribed cannabis-based product (mostly oral CBD). CONCLUSION Respondents self-medicated with cannabis to treat a wide range of health complaints. Only half discussed medicinal cannabis use with their medical professional, and a minority requested a prescription and used a prescribed cannabis-based product.