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Now, I’m as partial to the ol’ Devil’s Lettuce as the next man, and I think it should definitely be decriminalised – not legalised, but the reason for that’s a whole ’nuther story. However, I’ve long been sceptical of the wide-eyed claims of enthusiasts who want us to believe that their wonder weed is the miracle cure of the ages.
Such hyperbole seems too often to belong more to the realm of snake-oil (and cheap backdoor efforts at legalisation, especially by those with a fortune to make) than hard science. Claims of everything up to curing cancer abound on the woo-woo circles of social media, but solid evidence is rarely forthcoming. Indeed, whenever medicinal cannabis is put to the test of double-blind studies, it comes up wanting.
Still, one of the promising areas for medicinal cannabis has long seemed to be in relieving chronic pain. A recent trial suggests that, for at least one type of chronic pain, the hype is once again failing to live up to expectations.
Chronic neuropathic pain develops when nerves are damaged, often leading to persistent and difficult-to-treat symptoms. Standard medications provide meaningful relief for only a small portion of patients, which has fueled interest in alternative options such as cannabis-based medicines. These products range from herbal cannabis to specific compounds derived from the plant, including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and are used in forms such as inhaled products, mouth sprays, tablets, creams, and skin patches.
Ironically, such treatments seem to be most often used by those who rail against ‘Big Pharma’ putting profits before people, which is ironic, considering that Big Weed is currently estimated at around $70 billion USD and growing. In those US states where cannabis has been legalised, the purely recreational market has ruthlessly squeezed out the medicinal and weed farms have been exposed as using trafficked children as slave labour.
Kinda makes Big Pharma look almost angelic by comparison.
But, leaving that aside, what does this new evidence say?
To assess how well these treatments work, researchers analyzed 21 clinical trials involving more than 2,100 adults. In these studies, cannabis-based medicines were compared with placebo treatments over periods lasting from two to 26 weeks.
The products studied fell into three main categories. Some contained mostly THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis. Others were primarily made up of cannabidiol (CBD), a compound that does not cause intoxication. A third group included balanced products with similar amounts of THC and CBD.
Well, sorry, potheads, you can get high, but you’re not getting any better pain relief than the placebo.
Across all three categories, the review found no high-quality evidence that cannabis-based medicines reduced neuropathic pain more effectively than placebo. Although a few participants using products that combined THC and CBD reported slight improvements, these changes were too small to be considered clinically meaningful.
On the plus side, side effects were minimal.
Products containing THC were linked to increased reports of dizziness and drowsiness.
That was kind of the point of weed all along, wasn’t it?
