“That sort of pain is there 24/7 but the worst pain I would get is electric shocks. It feels like someone is jabbing an electric probe into my thighs.” Pātea resident Andrew Fleming uses medicinal cannabis to manage his pain condition, saying "It works better than anything I’ve ever had in the past”. When he was admitted to Burwood Hospital in 2020, a patient in his ward suggested he “consider marijuana”.
After consulting his Pātea GP, Fleming has been on a regular prescription of medicinal cannabis for more than two years.
He said the drug had brought him immense relief and was the most effective pain management medicine he had taken.
“My pain levels are just so low compared to what they used to be. I would say rather than burning pain in my legs, it feels more like annoying sensations, like insects running around on my skin.”
Earlier this year, data released to the NZME showed that across all age groups the number of medicinal cannabis prescriptions had grown each year for the past four years. The highest number of prescriptions was in the 30-39 age group at 27,028.
In the 60-69 age group, prescriptions rose to 13,236 in 2023. In April to December 2020, when the scheme first came into effect, there were just 1294 prescriptions for this age group.
Dr Waseem Alzaher, who opened The Cannabis Clinic in 2020, said patients mainly accessed his service for chronic pain, insomnia or mental health issues such as anxiety, and they came from “all walks of life”. Cannabis Clinic chief executive Dr Waseem Alzaher says medicinal cannabis offers life-changing benefits to some patients. Photo / Supplied Alzaher said medicinal cannabis could provide relief for common ageing issues such as osteoarthritis, which led to wear and tear in the joints, or rheumatoid arthritis, which caused inflammation in the joints.
It could also help with common sleeping issues in older people, he said.
Recently, Alzaher treated a client who, after regularly taking medicinal cannabis for one month, was able to return to playing lawn bowls.“There’s a lot of education to be done because older generations hold so much stigma […]
Painful joints: Medicinal cannabis in demand with older people and chronic pain sufferers
