If you’re someone who deals with back pain, you’re not alone. There are a lot of people who deal with this, and there are tons of treatments that people are using. One of them is marijuana, which can be used for back pain, and here, well discussed whether or not marijuana is best for back pain. 

What Back Pain Is 

Back pain is something that about 1 in every 6 adults deals with.  This is something that’s hard to treat, and even diagnose. That’s because the pain sensations may be from a ligament that’s torn, a disc that’s breaking down, or a nerve that’s pinched and trapped. Some patients also may experience no pain despite having a herniated disc. This is something that makes back pain very hard to diagnose in most cases. 

Back pain is usually something that can definitely be hard to really adjust and view in terms of perception of how severe it is. 

Some people may look at some of the psychosocial issues to figure out why your back pain is there. Most traditional medicines for back pain include different drugs such as antidepressants, ibuprofen, and other narcotics including opioids as well. This is something that some patients avoid however, since it can be addictive and easy to abuse. 

This can be a big problem for some people, and it’s a complex issue. However, some people have found marijuana to be the answer to treating back pain conditions. 

THC for Back Pain 

The ECS is a major target for a lot of back pain, to the point where you can manipulate the ECS, and from there reduce the presence of back pain. There are also cannabinoids that do get onto this. 

THC is definitely a huge part of underpinning the marijuana parts of this. Lots of people will even say that the pain will go away after hitting the bong. Part of this issue relates to the positive feelings that you get, but there are also some grounds for agreement that this can help with back pain. 

Some clinical reviews have even looked at different human data in order to find the reduction in opioid uses after you start to use cannabis for treating back pain. However, despite this, there are still a ton of variables, which doesn’t make this super reliable. One study looked at some patients who had back pain and neuropathic pain. It found as well that cannabis can help with this, and it also reduced hospital visits too. 

What about CBD 

CBD is a bit different, since it’s not psychoactive, and it can bind to other enzymes that do impact your ECS. Endocannabinoid signals that deal with pain actually are the responsibility of CBD. CBD does block these enzymes and blocks the breakdown of this, increasing your anandamide levels, and also inhibiting the pain that neurotransmitters give you. 

However, one downside to this, is that there are no human studies which confirm this. Right now, the CB1 and the CB2 receptors are the main parts of your ECS. But there are also parts of the expanded ECS that play a part in this, including TRPV-1, which is one that actually slows down the interactions of pain and inflammation. CBD is a major player of this, and it’s partially why CBD can be used for back pain. 

The research is still ongoing with this, so we don’t have all of the answers, but for many, even just getting off of opioids is enough to get people to use cannabis for back pain and trying it right now.