The Medicinal Use of Cannabis and Cannabinoids—An International Cross-Sectional Survey on Administration Forms

This article explores the practical impact of Cannabinoid Based Medicine (CBMs) on a large range of real-time primary data sources. It presents the survey report performed by the International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines (IACM) to explore the practical impact of CBMs. The research questions were focused on the forms of medicinal intake of cannabis. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the understanding of the effectiveness of Cannabinoid Based Medicine (CBM) and their effectiveness considering the different forms of treatments. The aim of this survey is to compare different administration forms of consuming cannabis in order to identify the relative advantages and disadvantages of the specific procedures over others.

Running head: RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
Research Methodologies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Article Author(s) Arno Hazekamp Ph.D. , - Head of Research and Development at
Bedrocan BV, The Netherlands; Department of Plant
Metabolomics, Faculty of Science , Leiden University , Leiden ,
The Netherlands
Mark A. Ware M.D., - Departments of Family Medicine and
Anesthesia , McGill University , Montreal , QC , Canada
Kirsten R. Muller-Vahl M.D., - Clinic of Psychiatry, Social
Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , Hannover Medical School ,
Hannover , Germany
Donald Abrams M.D., - Division of Hematology-Oncology, San
Francisco General Hospital , University of California , San
Francisco , CA
Franjo Grotenhermen M.D. - Head of Research and Development
at Nova-institut , Huerth , Germany
Journal Name Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
Volume and Issue Volume 45, Issue 3
Page Numbers 199-210
DOI 10.1080/02791072.2013.805976
Why it was chosen? The article named ‘The Medicinal Use of Cannabis and
Cannabinoids—An International Cross-Sectional Survey on
Administration Forms’ has been chosen for its multiple
significances. Cannabis popularly known as marijuana has
significant medicinal properties that had been proven already by
various research and applied pharmacy. Cannabinoids, including
tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol based medicines also known
as CBMs are increasingly available for treating patient in many
countries. On the other hand, there are very few researches have
been done to explore the practical impact of CBM’s on a large
range of real time primary data source. The most valuable cause to
choose this article is, it presented the survey report performed by

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International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines (IACM) to
explore the practical impact of CBMs. Another cause to choose this
article is it is the largest international survey on a wide variety of
CBMs.
Considering the fact, that the target of this research is to compare
different forms of consuming cannabis in order to identify the
relative advantages of the specific procedures over others, this
research has significance in the field of Cannabinoid and medicinal
use of cannabis.
Content
1. Research
Question
The research questions were focused on the forms of medicinal
intake of cannabis. However, the major objectives of this study
reflected the research questions as described below:
What is the existing effectiveness of different Cannabinoid Based
Medicine (CBM) compared to the different administration form s?
What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of various
administration form of cannabis intake for treatment purpose?
2. Purpose of the
research
The purpose of this research is to contribute to the understanding of
the effectiveness of Cannabinoid Based Medicine (CBM) and their
effectiveness considering the different forms of treatments. The aim
of this survey is to compare different administration forms of
consuming cannabis in order to identify the relative advantages and
disadvantages of the specific procedures over others.
3. Research
approach and
design
As per the strategic choice of data collection, it can be said that the
research focused more on examining the facts rather than providing
justifications. To explore the existing situation in CBM base
treatment and the effectiveness this research followed the inductive
approach. Inductive approach allowed the research to form a open
ended outcomes that could not be determined before conducting the

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research. As per the aim of this research, it focused on the
examination and exploration of the situation instead of justifying
any hypothesis, which defined the research design as exploratory
research design.
4. Research
population and
sample
The survey was conducted on the patients who use Cannabinoid
based medicine or intake Cannabis in various forms. The sample
size ware ranged up to 953 participants from 31 countries where
64% were male and 339 were female. The sample of this research is
self selected “availability sample”. In order to select the sample size
the research has been conducted on the visitors of official IACM
website, which is http:/ /www.cannabis-med.org
5. Ethical approval
noted
The research is ethically approved which is mentioned in the
methodology section of the research. The survey was approved by
the Ethics Committee of the Hannover Medical School Germany
that justified its ethical considerations
6. Statistical result 40.8% of marijuana consumers are 21 to 40 years old.
45% of participants are 40 to 60 years old.
Only 8.5% of the total participants are either teenager or more than
60 years old.
94.8% participants reported that they have tried at least once to
inhale CBMs
68.5% participants took oral or sublingual administration of CBMs.
5% participants experienced with topical use of CBMs.
91.6% participants tried smoking cannabis as herb or resin.
The intervention of tobacco mixing while smoking Cannabis is
disagreed by 52.7% of the total participants in North American.
Only 14.1% of European participants reported that they did not mix
tobacco with Cannabis.
49.8% used vaporizer while smoking

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30 of the 901 total participants reported that they did not use
branded vaporizer
80.4% participants agreed that they had been under treatment of
CBMs and currently do not have any issues for their particular
conditions.
69% participants found CBM is effective for the five symptoms
including chronic pain, anxiety, loss of appetite, depression and
sleeping disorder.
87% were recent user of CBM and 12.6% had used CBM in their
past.
In 47% of the cases at least one medical professional were involved
in recommending or prescribing
10.4% participants obtain Marijuana from government program,
26.3% from dispensaries, 54.4% grow in home legally or illegally.
7. Discussion As per the report collected from the participant the advantage and
disadvantage of medical use of cannabis differs depending the form
of administration considering the inhaling, oral and other procedure
of intake. As per the demographical origin of the participants, the
higher number of participants are 20 to 60 years old while the
number of participants of 50 to 60 years old is maximum. It clearly
indicates that the consuming marijuana for medicinal purpose is still
low in teen age as well as in older age. However, the post middle
age psychological issues and health issues could be identified as the
major cause of the consumers ranged from 50 to 60. The cost factor
also influences the data due to the insurance covering of medication
cost for higher dose. The participants who needed high doses
usually prefer herbal cannabis intake. However, this type of
consumption cannot be covered by the currently available
pharmaceutical coverage insurance. Apart from that a large number
of consumers prefer inhaling the homegrown cannabis without the
interference of pharmaceutical procedure from both practicality and

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economical aspect. This situation is causing increasing number of
illegally grown marijuana. On the other hand, the respondents did
not appreciate the cost of CBMs in dispensaries and buyer’s clubs.
Moreover, this study clearly indicates that the national medicinal
marijuana program allows more access to the verities of marijuana
intake process to avoid any discrepancies including the overdose,
illegal farming and others. The alternative smoking trends to intake
cannabis also defers depending on the geographical position of the
patients. Apart from that the trends of using branded vaporizer is
considerably lower that indicates the lack of availability and
awareness of portable and user-friendly vaporizers within the
consumers. Appropriate consultation with pharmaceutical
companies to develop less costly Cannabis based processed
medicines that enables to avoid other form of intake instead of oral
medication.
8. References from
last 5 years
This article was published in 2013. Most of the references were
ranged from 2001 to 2012. However, out of 40 references 14
references were from previous 5 years. All these 14 references were
published either on or after 2008.
9. Application to
practice
The information and details provided by the articles are very helpful
in terms of developing the knowledge on current trends of
consuming marijuana considering different forms of intake and their
advantage and disadvantages. Apart from that, this research is very
helpful to organize a healthcare campaign to aware the community
about the advantages and disadvantages of different practices of
intake. This research will also help to demonstrate the existing
situation of the Cannabis consumers to various government and
non-government to take immediate action against the unhealthy
consumption procedures. It will also enable the health care service
provider to collaborate with the vaporizers brands to promote more
healthy and authentic way to inhale cannabis. The demographical
distribution of participants will enable the learner to develop

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appropriate caregiver practice model for patient of different ages.
Reference:
Hazekamp, A., Ware, M. A., Muller-Vahl, K. R., Abrams, D., & Grotenhermen, F. (2013).
The medicinal use of cannabis and cannabinoids—an international cross-sectional
survey on administration forms. Journal of psychoactive drugs, 45(3), 199-210.