New research has found that legally available medical cannabis has helped improve the mental health of individuals aged 65 and above.
For their research, the investigators at the National Bureau of Economic Research utilized geographic data to determine the availability effects of medical marijuana dispensaries on self-reported mental health in the state of New York. They found that living half an hour away from dispensaries reduced the probability of having poor mental health day for individuals in this age group by roughly 10%. They partly attributed this positive health impact to pain relief.
This aligns with research from the Cato Institute which found that marijuana was good for managing chronic pain caused by nerve disease. This, the Cato researchers argued, could explain why the availability of medical marijuana improved the mental health of individuals.
The results from this latest study also suggest that the availability of medical marijuana has limited effects on the mental health of the general population.
Another study supported by AARP also determined that marijuana use by older individuals had almost doubled in the last 3 years. Individuals aged 50 and above who took part in the study revealed that they used the drug to help with sleep, for pain relief, and to improve their mental health.
In their report, the investigators at the National Bureau of Economic Research stated that their findings on the importance of dispensary locations needed to be considered by lawmakers and other policymakers.
They added that there was a need to learn more about how the use of marijuana affected older individuals, explaining that while President Biden had eliminated some of the restrictions imposed by the federal government on clinical research on marijuana, there was limited clinical evidence on the health effects of marijuana.
This study’s findings come just months after separate research conducted earlier this year concluded that products based on marijuana could offer different therapeutic benefits for older individuals, including for mood, sleep, well-being, and health. The authors of this study, whose findings were reported in the Drugs and Aging journal, observed substantial decreases in pain interference and severity among older patients who suffered from chronic pain.
These studies come just months after officials at the National Institutes of Health announced in April that they’d allocated funding for trials into the effectiveness and safety of psychedelic-assisted therapy in treating chronic pain in older individuals.
A notice on the grant reveals that the trials will include psychedelics like LSD, mescaline, DMT, and psilocybin as well as compounds like MDMA.
As further studies are conducted in the coming years, it could come to light that the medical marijuana products produced by firms like Verano Holdings Corp. (CSE: VRNO) (OTCQX: VRNOF) have many other beneficial effects on different groups of users.
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