Rationale: Chronic pain is the most common reason people are prescribed cannabis (Boehnke et al., 2022). Patients often report that cannabis reduces reliance on opioids and consider it a safer pain management alternative (Lucas et al., 2021). However, cannabis has not been proven to reduce chronic pain.

Historically, prescription opioid use is the predominant gateway to narcotic dependence. Three out of four opioid users start with a prescription (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2015). Researchers examined if patients who used cannabis for pain treatment would take fewer opioids following surgery. (Bicket, 2024)

Method: 11,314 surgical patients from 69 hospitals took multiple postoperative surveys assessing levels of pain after surgery, pain management methods, general satisfaction, quality of life, and any regret about having surgery.

Results: Patients who used cannabis took more oxycodone than non-using patients after surgery. Cannabis users were also (21.9%) more likely to be prescribed opioids before surgery than non-users (16.9%), suggesting that they were experiencing more pain to begin with.

Cannabis users were more than 10% as likely to report moderate-to-severe post-surgery pain than non users. They also reported a lower quality of life and greater regret of undergoing surgery.

Meaning: Cannabis users have more pain after surgery than non-users. Therefore, it does not appear to be an effective treatment for pain.  Not only is pain higher in users, but they are more likely to need oxycodone, perhaps increasing the risk of narcotic dependence.  Anybody who’s thinking about using cannabis to manage pain after surgery should consider other options.