The Explosion of U.S. Cannabis Sales and its Effect on America’s Healthcare System BY MICHAEL C. PATTERSON
first-hand experience that Seniors are tired of taking so many medications and dealing with a barrage of side effects from constipation, nausea, headache, fatigue, decrease in immune response, and more. As more Seniors are recommended medical cannabis, they see the benefits of its use and they tell their friends. As more Seniors continue to use cannabis as a medicine and have a positive experience, the acceptance of medicinal cannabis will continue to accelerate. Furthermore, as adult use cannabis becomes legal in more states, more Seniors will be by-passing their physician and going directly to the cannabis dispensary in an attempt to self-medicate. Health care companies will need to acknowledge cannabis as a medicine and begin to look at recommending medicinal cannabis or eventually incorporating adult use cannabis into a treatment regimen (similar to using vitamins or nutritional supplements) in order to maintain or increase current patient services and revenue.
The Marijuana Business Factbook, provided by Marijuana Business Daily, has recently projected that the U.S. Cannabis market (medical and adult use cannabis) will exceed $36 Billion in sales by 2024. This overwhelming acceptance by the American public is changing the US healthcare system in unexpected ways. In 2019, the USA sold approximately $13.6 Billion in legal cannabis ($7.6 Billion- Adult Use, $6.0 Billion Medical Use). Cannabis sales continue to increase 30 percent per year on average across the country. With over 90 percent of Americans approving medical cannabis use and 67 percent approving adult use (recreational use), legal cannabis in our society is here to stay. In Florida, medical cannabis sales are projected to surpass over $1 Billion in 2020 with over 350,000 qualified medical cannabis patients as of July 2020, and patient counts steadily rising 3,000-5,000 per week. With the continued increase in use and acceptance of cannabis, how is this currently affecting America’s healthcare system and what effect will cannabis have on the future of healthcare?
Big Pharma is on the sidelines, but ready to get into the game Big Pharma companies are already involved in the global cannabis industry. Companies are performing research on cannabis (where legal) and studying current cannabis companies in the market. As the US moves toward legalization of cannabis, innovation will increase dramatically. You will see more interest and money flowing into the cannabis industry for R & D of the cannabis and hemp plant, the development and study of minor cannabinoids (CBG, CBN, THCA, THCV, etc.) for medicinal use, and the development of patented
The sky is not falling Prior to legalization, the prohibitionists attempted to squash legalization at every turn. Their most common tactic was turning to physicians and medical experts to publicly state that cannabis will be the downfall of our society. That people will become addicted at very high rates, crime will increase and overdose deaths from cannabis will become an epidemic. In reality, the exact opposite is happening. No human has ever died from cannabis (in any form) in human history, which makes cannabis one of the safest medicines, if not the safest, on the planet. To put that figure of ZERO deaths in perspective, people die every year from water intoxication (drinking too much water). Furthermore, studies are beginning to demonstrate patients who use cannabis as a medicine decrease the use of two to three prescription drugs per month because they don’t need them anymore. Cannabis decreases inflammation at the cellular level across the body, which can decrease pain and keep the body closer to a homeostatic state.
cannabis formulations which have proprietary blends of cannabinoids for a specific medical purpose. Also, there will be an increase in the use of non-euphoric cannabinoid formulations to be used as nutritional supplements (similar to fish oil, krill oil, resveratrol, and other natural supplements).
Insurance companies are already looking into how to reimburse cannabis as a medicine Once cannabis goes legal at the federal level, federal insurance programs (Medicare, Medicaid) will begin paying for cannabis. This will lead to private insurance companies paying for medical cannabis as well (if it comes from a physician script). The FDA has already begun to study the Canadian market to see how Canada is covering medical cannabis prescriptions. In regard to insurance payment of cannabis medicine, it is different than any other medicine that has come before. There will have to be a lot of issues worked out to pay for cannabis via insurance due to the many forms of cannabis (flower, edibles, oil-based medicine, tinctures, spray, patch, etc.), implementing cannabis into the current CPT code payment system, and payment amounts per gram of product.
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Senior Citizens are the fastest growing demographic of cannabis users On average, persons over 65 years old in the USA take 13 prescription medications per day. I have seen from
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