Pain, to some degree, is a part of many people’s lives. It can range from temporary small pain, all the way to ongoing severe pain, or varying frequencies and levels of severity in between. Pain can be caused by an injury, a visit to a dentist’s office, surgery, a serious health condition, or many other things.

Chronic pain is typically defined by health experts as pain that lasts for more than 3 months, and for many people, it can be debilitating and significantly take away from their overall quality of life. International researchers estimate that as many as 1.5 billion to 2 billion people suffer from chronic pain worldwide.

Opioids are a common treatment for chronic pain and come in various forms. Semi-synthetic and synthetic opioids are often prescribed to pain patients. Unfortunately, they can lead to various side effects, including constipation, breathing problems, nausea, and hormonal changes. Opioids are also very addictive and are associated with hundreds of thousands of deaths around the globe annually.

Researchers affiliated with the German Association of Pharmaceutical Cannabinoid Companies (BPC) recently conducted an examination comparing the safety and affordability of medical cannabis to opioids.

“Chronic pain is one of the greatest medical challenges: For many sufferers, the path to a tolerable, effective therapy is still long. Particularly when treated with opioids, many people with chronic pain experience serious side effects or fear addiction. New research by the German Association of Pharmaceutical Cannabinoid Companies (BPC) now clearly shows that medical cannabis can represent a safe, tolerable, effective, and also economically viable alternative to opioids.” BPC stated in a recent news release (translated from German to English).

“Both therapies achieve comparable values ​​in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), which describe how many additional years of life a therapy can provide and how high its quality is. The QALY values ​​are derived from a health economic model by Jeddi et al. (2025), based on a systematic review and network meta-analysis of all available randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on medical cannabis and opioids. The safety difference is also crucial: Cannabis does not pose a risk of severe or fatal overdoses, as can occur with opioids.” BPC found.

“The data show that patients using medical cannabis experience just as high a quality of life as those using opioids, but suffer from significantly fewer side effects.” Antonia Menzel, Chair of the Board of the BPC, explained.

“Besides the increased safety, the cost trend also clearly favors treatments with medicinal cannabis: A low-dose therapy costs around 37 euros per month and is therefore significantly cheaper than a comparable low opioid dose, which already costs around 73 euros. The same trend is evident in the medium dosage range, so cannabis remains the more cost-effective option in the dosages used to treat most patients.” BPC added.

“Our survey confirms what the BPC has stood for for years. We hope that the results will lead to politicians recognizing the potential of medicinal cannabis and taking it into account in future decisions,” said Antonia Menzel.

BPC’s research comparing medical cannabis and opioids builds on their previous research, which found that Germany’s current medical cannabis model has economically benefited patients by reducing their number of sick days, and by extension, benefited German society overall.

“According to a recent projection based on a survey of 8,831 cannabis patients, medical cannabis therapy has already generated significant economic benefits in Germany amounting to billions of euros. The surveyed patients reported that since starting their cannabis therapy, the number of their annual sick days had decreased by an average of 58 percent. Extrapolated, the economic benefit of this reduction in sick days for cannabis patients in Germany is estimated at more than 3.7 billion euros.” BPC stated in a press release late last year (translated from German to English).

“Based on import volumes, it is estimated that there are approximately 800,000 cannabis patients in Germany. This figure is still lower than the number of people who regularly take opioids (two million people) or antidepressants (3.2 million people). According to Pronova BKK, 22 percent of adults also take prescription sleep aids, which equates to more than ten million people. The Robert Koch Institute estimates that 53.7 percent of adults in Germany were affected by a chronic illness or a long-term health problem in 2024, which is reflected in sick days taken at work in Germany.” BPC added.

In the third quarter of 2025 alone, Germany imported 56.915 tonnes of medical cannabis products according to Germany’s Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) data. BPC included the following findings as part of its research analysis last year:

• The patients surveyed stated that, before starting their cannabis therapy, they had been absent from work due to illness for an average of 37.6 days per year.
• After starting cannabis therapy, these days of absence were reduced by 58 percent to an average of 15.7 days.
• Around one-fifth of those surveyed stated that they had been unable to work for a long time before starting cannabis therapy, for example, due to chronic pain. This improved after starting cannabis therapy.

“The respondents earn an average gross monthly salary of €3,875. Extrapolating the saved sick days to 800,000 cannabis patients results in an economic benefit of over €3.7 billion.” BPC stated. “The cannabis patients surveyed also reported more effective work as a result of the therapy due to better sleep quality (68 percent), less severe symptoms (54.3 percent), and a positive effect of medical cannabis on cognitive performance in the workplace (42.1 percent).”