Releaf’s research recap: UK medical cannabis facts
10 min read
Lucy MacKinnon
At Releaf, one of our core commitments is to provide accurate, reliable and relevant information about medical cannabis treatments here in the UK, and in order to do this we’ve conducted our own research on numerous occasions.
In June 2023, over six months before our official launch, we published our first ever report: Say No To Pain. Here, we explored the attitudes, awareness, acceptance, and perceptions of medical cannabis by surveying 4,200 adults from all over the UK, and at the time this was the largest survey on this subject to be undertaken in the country.
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Our Say No To Pain findings have helped to shape not only the content that we produce and the misconceptions that we address with our marketing, but have become integral to Releaf as a service, and to the way we serve and support our community.
And so, we decided now was about time to give another recap of not only this research, but also a summary of what we’ve been investigating since.
So, strap in - it’s stats and facts time.
Say No To Pain: Releaf’s representative research report
1 in 2 UK adults have been diagnosed with a condition that is suitable for cannabis-based treatments.
Our survey listed 25 different health conditions that have shown to respond to cannabis-based treatments. And while there are many more conditions known to respond to medical cannabis, 1 in 2, or 50.2% of respondents, said they had been diagnosed with at least one of the conditions listed. When equated to the population in England and Wales from the same year, that represents almost 30 million individuals.
We also found 46% of those with these conditions also described living with significant distress and discomfort because of their health, and the same percentage said they experienced side effects from the medication they are being prescribed. 18% described these as serious.
In addition to this, 35% said their health affects their personal, or families, quality of life, and a third said it impacts their ability to work or study too.
These findings not only demonstrate just how many people have chronic health conditions here in the UK, but how an overwhelming percentage are compromising their overall health or wellbeing, in order to treat one condition or set of symptoms. But Releaf we believe in taking an alternative, all-encompassing approach: holistic health, and we think these findings demonstrate the need for just this.
But, did people even know holistic cannabis-based treatment plans were an option available to them? Well, that’s what we looked into next…
In 2023, 59% of adults did not know if medical cannabis was legal in the UK.
Despite medical cannabis being legalised in 2018, when filling out our survey, 35% of respondents believed medical cannabis was not legal in the UK, and a further 24% admitted that they were not sure if it was legal or not.
However, 46% said they were aware that medical cannabis can be used to treat patients with chronic pain, and 38% said the same for anxiety, and multiple sclerosis (24%).
On the other hand, only 4% of survey respondents were aware patients with gut health conditions like IBS or colitis may be eligible for medical cannabis, and the numbers were also low for menopause (4%), and chemotherapy induced nausea (6%).
This set of findings show not only the disparity in awareness of medical cannabis applications across various conditions, indicating a greater need for condition specific content, but also a disparity between the awareness of these treatments potential benefits and their availability, or level of accessibility, here in the UK.
And so, we took this on board when designing our content and marketing strategies in an attempt to bridge these knowledge gaps. And, frankly, our results speak for themselves. In November 2024 alone, Releaf webpages were viewed an impressive 680,690 times, demonstrating not only a healthy appetite for reliable cannabis based content, but how we’re fulfilling this demand.
68% of UK adults would consider trying medical cannabis as a treatment for their health condition if their doctor had recommended it.
We also wanted to assess interest in, and acceptance of, medical cannabis treatments - and what could influence a person’s decision when seeking out these treatments.
So, as well as asking if our survey cohort would consider medical cannabis, and 68% said they would if their doctor recommended it, we also asked if they’d be likely to support a loved one using medical cannabis: 86% said they would.
This shows that an overwhelming majority would not only accept alternative treatments like medical cannabis or cannabis oil as a treatment for themselves providing they have professional guidance, but also for those nearest and dearest to them.
However, 25% did say they were concerned that medical cannabis may be too costly, 29% admitted they were concerned they may feel ‘high’ if they were to use medical cannabis, and 34% said they felt others may mistake them for acting illegally.
But, we took this feedback on board too.
We introduced Releaf+, a savvy subscription service that ensures cost-predictability, as well as helpful videos where our doctors debunk medical cannabis misconceptions and answer FAQs. In addition, we rolled out Releaf’s medical cannabis cards that when scanned bring up a digital copy of the patient's legal medical cannabis prescription, along with a run-down of the law and their rights in case they should ever have to prove their medication, or patient status, validity.
Google Search Trends: Insights on UK interest in medical cannabis
To add to our repertoire of research, we also wanted to investigate how people currently access information about medical cannabis, and how interest in these alternative options has progressed over time post legalisation.
And, as the internet acts as a mirror to society, we thought analysing the search trends on Google would be the best place to start, and so we used Google Trends.
September 2023: First search trend analysis
In September 2023, we undertook our first analysis of search trends in the UK.
We found interest was at an all-time high - even higher than when medical cannabis was first legalised in the UK in 2018 - with searches for ‘medical cannabis’ being 19% more popular between 2022 and 2023 than they were in 2018.
In addition to this, in England alone, searches for ‘medical cannabis’ were twice as high in September 2023 than they were in September 2022.
We also analysed what time people were searching for cannabis-based treatments, and interestingly across all four nations in the UK, searches for medical cannabis most frequently occurred at around 3am.
April 2024: Second search trend analysis
In April 2024, we conducted a second search analysis using Google Trends.
Here we found that between 2023 and 2024, the search term ‘medical cannabis’ spiked in popularity again by 45%, and was three times more popular than it was during the same month (April) in 2020 and 2021.
Similarly, the search term ‘cannabis prescriptions’ also reached its peak in April 2024, however the most significant increase was between 2022 and 2023 (116%).
In comparison, interest, or at least searches for, CBD oil has substantially fallen in the last 4 years. While CBD oil received a relatively high popularity rating of 61 out of 100 in April 2020 on Google Trends, in April this year that had fallen to 22 out of 100.
Who uses medical cannabis in the UK: October 2024
After we’d surveyed the public to evaluate their attitudes towards medical cannabis, and analysed internet search trends to investigate interest, we wanted to address the misconceptions we’d uncovered - and we did this using tangible evidence: our demographics' data.
Published in October 2024, our blog ‘Who uses medical cannabis in the UK’ gives an overview of real individuals in the UK accessing Releaf’s services: where they’re from, how old they are, to what condition they’re treating, and what they’re treating it with. We wanted to give a truthful depiction, in the hope of comforting readers that individuals just like you, and me, are already benefiting from these options.
And here’s what we found:
Chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and fibromyalgia are the most commonly treated conditions at Releaf.
At Releaf, we treat, care for, and support patients with a wide range of health conditions. However, the health conditions we treat most frequently are chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and fibromyalgia.
This is followed by arthritis, ADHD, lower back pain, PTSD, insomnia, and migraines.
40% of Releaf patients are over the age of 45.
Some may also be curious to know the average age of medical cannabis patients in the UK, so we looked into that too. At the time of our data collection, 22% of Releaf patients were aged between 45 and 55, meanwhile 11% were aged between 55 and 64, and 7% were over the age of 65.
Similarly, 7% were aged between 18 and 24, 25% were between the ages of 25 and 34, and 28% were between the ages of 35 and 44.
Over 30% of patients have a prescription for medical cannabis oil.
Cannabis based products for medicinal use (CBPMs) come in various different formulations, and at Releaf we prescribe from a formulary that contains both medical cannabis oil, and medical cannabis flower - or cultivar - variants.
When this data was collected, 28% of Releaf patients were on ‘combined’ treatment plans, meaning they held a prescription for both cannabis oil and medical cannabis flower, meanwhile 12% were on oil only treatment plans.
83% of UK cities have residents that are using Releaf’s services.
Many people also think medical cannabis is too hard to access, or it’s not available in their area, but because all Releaf appointments are held online, and our medication is shipped directly to patients home using a signed for and tracked delivery service, at Releaf we can treat patients all over the UK. And, we do!
According to our data analysis on the 1st of October, we were treating patients in 83% of UK cities, which had grown from just over 50% in August earlier this year. So, it's actually very likely that at least one person in your city is in fact receiving medical cannabis treatments through Releaf. But, chances are - that number is much, much higher!
Final Thoughts
This research has helped us to further understand the landscape of medical cannabis here in the UK, from high levels of interest in alternative options, and a prevalence of likely eligibility, to the frequency of challenges faced by individuals with chronic health conditions, and the widespread lack of knowledge about the legality and availability of cannabis-based treatments - we’ve uncovered a lot.
And, we’re not stopping here!
Over the next month we’ll be unveiling our research plans for 2025, and trust me, you won’t want to miss what’s coming next. So, stay tuned.
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It is important to seek medical advice before starting any new treatments. The patient advisors at Releaf are available to provide expert advice and support. Alternatively, click here to book a consultation with one of our specialist doctors.
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With five years of journalism and healthcare content creation under her belt, Lucy strives to improve medical cannabis awareness and access in the UK by producing high quality, credible content.
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