WEDNESDAY, Aug. 14, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Among U.S. adults with diabetes, cannabis use increased 33.7 percent in the past month from 2021 to 2022, according to a research letter published online July 22 Diabetes care.

Benjamin H. Han, MD, MPH, of the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine at La Jolla, and colleagues estimated the recent national prevalence of cannabis use among adults with diabetes using aggregated data from the 2021-2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The sample was limited to 6,816 adults who reported a lifetime diagnosis of diabetes.

The researchers found that an estimated 9.0 percent of adults with diabetes in the United States used cannabis in the past month. Prevalence increased 33.7 percent from 7.7 percent in 2021 to 10.3 percent in 2022. About half of diabetics who used cannabis were younger than 50 years old (48.9 percent); 20.4 percent of those under 50 did not use cannabis. Higher odds of past-month cannabis use were found in association with residency in states where cannabis is legal, a history of hepatitis, a major depressive episode in the past year, and emergency department use in the past year (adjusted odds ratios 2.76, 3.87, 1.58, and 1.46, respectively). Higher odds were also observed among individuals who had used tobacco, binge-drinked alcohol, or abused opioids or stimulants in the past month (adjusted odds ratios: 2.90, 2.21, 6.37, and 4.14, respectively).

“Physicians need to discuss with their diabetes patients the potential harms of cannabis use on diabetes-related outcomes without a clear understanding of its benefits,” the authors write.

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