STUDENT: Stephen Wegener

PROJECT ADVISOR: Michael M. Evans

ABSTRACT

Chronic pain is something that an individual has to live with every day of their lives and makes it hard to function. We thought, opioids were going to be the end to chronic pain and be the curing medication. After these medications had been on the market people began to realize a need for a higher dose to get that same effect. The purpose of this paper is to obtain applicable literature to the topic of looking at the difference in pain scale ratings in adult patients with chronic pain being treated with medical marijuana in place of opioids. With intentions to describe an evidence based practice that will be accepted by healthcare workers treating those with chronic pain. CINALH database was used to search the keywords of chronic pain or persistent pain or long-term pain and medical marijuana that provided four results. Two articles were able to be used, “Benefits and Adverse Effects of Cannabis Use Among Adults with Persistent Pain” and “Frequency of Cannabis and Illicit Opioid Use Among People Who Use Drugs and Report Chronic Pain.” Another search was conducted on CINALH using the keywords of: causes of chronic pain voiding forty-five results. One article was able to use in this study, “Drug Dependence in Patients with Chronic Pain: A Retrospective Study.” One final search was conducted on CINAHL using the keywords of: side effects, opioids or opiates or pain meds, chronic pain. This provided four-hundred-fifty-two results giving us one article that will be used in this study. “Medical Cannabis Use is Associated with Decreased Opiate Medication Use in Retrospective Cross- Sectional Survey of Patients with Chronic Pain.” These articles each provided evidence that the patients that use medical marijuana have decreased pain levels and are able to perform their activity levels. Also, showing a drastic decrease in the opioid usage across the country since medical marijuana cards have been issued.