Bombshell cannabis study reveals hidden risks of medical pot that may actually outweigh any benefits
High hopes for medical cannabis are going up in smoke.A bombshell new report found “insufficient evidence” to back up most of its supposed benefits — and raised serious red flags about hidden risks.“Patients deserve honest conversations about what the science does and doesn’t tell us about medical cannabis,” Dr.Michael Hsu, an addiction psychiatrist at UCLA and lead author of the study, said in a statement.
The findings come as Americans increasingly rely on marijuana to cope with chronic pain, sleep difficulties, anxiety and a wide range of other health concerns.Medical cannabis is now legal in 40 states and DC, and nearly 9 in 10 US adults say they support using it when prescribed by a doctor.“While many people turn to cannabis seeking relief, our review highlights significant gaps between public perception and scientific evidence regarding its effectiveness for most medical conditions,” Hsu said.In the sweeping review, Hsu and his colleagues analyzed more than 2,500 scientific papers published between January 2010 and September 2025.They compared medical cannabis sold at dispensaries with pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoids — the handful of FDA-approved drugs containing either THC, a psychoactive compound, or CBD, which doesn’t cause a high.
The researchers found these medications delivered real benefits for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, boosting weight in patients with HIV/AIDS-related appetite loss and easing certain severe pediatric seizure disorders.But the science-backed benefits for medical cannabis fell short of the public hype.Even though more than half of users try it for acute pain, Hsu and his team found no solid clinical evidence that it works.
Current guidelines don’t recommend cannabis-based treatments as a first-line option for pain management.They also found that research on medical cannabis for conditions such as insomnia, anxiety, PTSD, Parkinson’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis was weak or inconclusive a...