Profiles of medicinal cannabis patients attending compassion centers in Rhode Island

AbstractLittle is understood regarding medicinal marijuana dispensary users. We sought to characterize socio-demographics and reasons for medicinal marijuana use among medical cannabis dispensary patients in Rhode Island. Participants (n=200) were recruited from one of two Compassion Centers in Rhode Island and asked to participate in a short survey, which included assessment of pain interference using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI). The majority of participants were male (73%), Caucasian (80%), college educated (68%), and had health insurance (89%). The most common reason for medicinal marijuana use was determined to be chronic pain management. Participants were more likely to have BPI pain interference scores of > 5 if they were older (OR: 1.36, 95% CI: 1.04–1.78) or reported using cannabis as a substitute for prescription medications (OR: 2.47, 95% CI: 1.23–4.95), and were less likely to have interference scores of >5 if they had higher income levels (OR: 0.53, 95% CI: 0.40–0.70) or reported having eve...