Anecdotal Reports Versus Clinical Research on Cannabis

Anecdotal reports from passionate medical cannabis patients have always driven the cannabis movement. Without decades of hard advocacy and personal experience, legal medical cannabis programs would never be where they are today. The stories of these warriors continue to inspire research and change minds of policy makers. But, do anecdotal reports have value as a part of clinical research? There are many new crowd-source data apps popping up that pull cannabis consumer information. What is the role of this data in pushing cannabis forward as a medicine? Despite the growing legal landscape, it is still challenging to take cannabis (or cannabis-based pharmaceuticals) into clinical trials. There may be an ever-increasing number of preliminary studies on medical cannabis, but the clinical trial is still a difficult bar to reach for a federally restricted substance. Remember, it has only been a few years since the first cannabis-based drug – Epidiolex – reached the U.S. market. Largely, cannabis clinical trials are few and far between. Because well-controlled studies are so rare, cannabis session tracking technology has risen to fill the void. These apps provide valuable data to researchers about trends, medical applications, and reported efficacy of medical cannabis. Do they replace the need for clinical trials? No. But they do serve a very real purpose: mobile cannabis tracking apps connect researchers with real-world use of cannabis. High Tech Anecdotal Reports: Cannabis Tracking Apps Over the last few years, several companies have launched mobile applications for medical cannabis patients designed to capture and analyze…

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Source : rxleaf
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