By Joana Scopel

A new study found that “cannabis consumption is associated with lower COVID-19 severity among hospitalized patients.”

According to the researchers “cannabis may actually lead to reduced disease severity and better outcomes despite a five-fold greater concomitant use of tobacco amongst cannabis users compared to non-users in our study population.”

Researchers aimed to assess whether cannabis users hospitalized for COVID-19 had improved outcomes compared to non-users.

The study published in the Journal of Cannabis Research showed that cannabis users had better outcomes, including a decreased need for ICU admission or mechanical ventilation.

RELATED: Is Cannabis Use Associated With Pulmonary Disease And COVID-19?

“Cannabis users had significantly better outcomes compared to non-users as reflected in lower NIH scores (5.1 vs 6.0), shorter hospitalization (4 days vs 6 days), lower ICU admission rates (12% vs 31%), and less need for mechanical ventilation (6% vs 17%),” the study continued. “ICU admission was 12 percentage points lower and intubation rates were 6 percentage points lower in cannabis users.”

About The Study

The authors stated that “the better results could be due to the medicinal properties, including anti-inflammatory effects, of some cannabinoids.”

The researchers noted that the link between cannabis usage and better COVID outcomes makes sense.

“Out of the 1,831 COVID patients in the study, 69 patients reported active cannabis use, which was just 4% of the total patients,” the study, conducted at two California hospitals, stated. “It is important to point out that differences in overall survival were not statistically significant between cannabis users and non-users.”

Methods

The method used a retrospective analysis of patient data, which included comparing NIH COVID-19 Severity Scores, the need for supplemental oxygen, intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation, length of hospitalization, and in-hospital death for cannabis users and non-users.

RELATED: FDA Warns CBD Companies To Stop Claiming Their Products Can Treat COVID-19

“Given the diverse ways in which cannabis can be introduced into the body, our grouping of inhaled and ingested cannabis should introduce little variability to an already highly variable cohort of cannabis users,” the study explained about methods of consumption.

“Pooling all cannabis users, regardless of administration method, gives our study more power in analysis while minimizing the risk of overfitted data.”

Conclusions

The study concluded that “cannabis users were more likely to have lower levels of inflammatory markers at admission compared to non-users. This effect was sustained during their hospital course, with cannabis users continuing to have lower inflammatory markers compared to non-users.”

In addition, researchers said, “this is the first study looking at clinical outcomes of cannabis users hospitalized with COVID-19.”

However, the authors concluded that “further studies, including prospective analyses, will help to better understand the relationship between cannabis and COVID-19 outcomes.”

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been reposted with permission.

Synthetic cannabis is a problem for everyone, affecting those who are for and against cannabis legalization. While people who oppose legal cannabis are concerned with people’s health and with what remains unknown about cannabis, proponents of legal cannabis claim that these programs can curb the use of synthetic cannabis.

A new data review supports these claims, finding that states with legal marijuana programs had fewer instances of synthetic cannabis use.

The findings were published in the journal Clinical Toxicology, which analyzed data from the National Poison Data System and discovered over 7,600 exposures to synthetic cannabis through the years 2016 to 2019. Researchers say that about 65% of users required medical attendance and recorded 61 deaths. Most importantly, state level medical cannabis programs were responsible for decreasing the use of synthetic cannabis over time.

Synthetic cannabis are man-made drugs with high toxicity levels, designed to produce the high of cannabis without the medicinal benefits. It has been linked with mental and physical damage and even the death of some users.

RELATED: The Danger Of Synthetic Cannabinoids

Researchers who conducted the study divided the data into three categories: permissive states, medical states, or restrictive states. States that experienced the most significant drop were permissive ones, with medical states following closely behind.

In an accompanying statement, the study’s authors said that these findings support what proponents of legal cannabis have been saying all along — having an option for legal cannabis put limitations on the black market and can result in healthier options for people.

“Based on both past research and this current study, it’s evident that users who have a choice to use a less toxic product would potentially do so,” said Tracy Klein, co-author of the study.

RELATED: How Your Endocannabinoid System Affects Your Cannabis Experience

Synthetic cannabis is illegal in all states and is commonly known as Ak-47, K2, Spice, Scoobie Snacks, Mr. Nice Guy, and more alternate names. The drug produces a similar high to that of cannabis and is undetected in most standard drug tests, which is likely why there’s a market for it.