Marijuana is used for both medical and recreational purposes, with roughly equal numbers of people reporting each motivation. In a large national survey, about 37% of current users said they used cannabis recreationally, 27% used it strictly for medical reasons, and 36% used it for both. Forty states currently allow medical cannabis, while 24 states permit recreational adult use.
FDA-Approved Medical Uses
While many people use marijuana in its plant form, a handful of cannabis-derived or cannabis-related medications have full FDA approval. Epidiolex, a purified form of CBD, is approved to treat seizures in patients one year and older with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, Dravet syndrome, or tuberous sclerosis complex. These are severe epilepsy conditions that often resist standard treatments, and Epidiolex was the first plant-derived cannabis medication to clear the FDA’s approval process.
Two other approved medications, Marinol and Syndros, contain a synthetic version of THC. They’re prescribed for severe nausea from chemotherapy and for the dangerous weight loss that can accompany AIDS. A similar synthetic drug, Cesamet, works on the same pathways and treats chemotherapy-related nausea as well.
Common Medical Uses by State Programs
State medical marijuana programs cover a much wider range of conditions than the FDA has formally approved. The qualifying conditions vary by state, but the most common ones include chronic pain, cancer, PTSD, seizure disorders, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, and HIV/AIDS. Many states also list fibromyalgia, severe arthritis, ALS, glaucoma, neuropathy, and muscle spasms.
Chronic pain is by far the most common reason people seek a medical marijuana card. A 2025 study tracked 440 chronic pain patients certified for medical marijuana by pain specialists. At three months, about 39% experienced meaningful improvements in pain, physical function, or their overall sense of how they were doing. Those gains held steady at six months. Patients who were also taking opioids saw their opioid doses drop by an average of 39% over six months, a significant reduction. When researchers compared medical marijuana directly against standard medication treatment using statistical methods designed to estimate cause and effect, the odds of responding favorably were 2.6 times higher with marijuana.
Recreational and Lifestyle Uses
Outside of medical programs, people use marijuana primarily for relaxation, stress relief, socializing, enhancing creativity, and improving sleep. National survey data shows that people who use marijuana for both medical and recreational reasons tend to use it more frequently, averaging about seven more days per month compared to those who use it recreationally only. Medical-only users also use more frequently than recreational-only users, by about six additional days per month.
This pattern suggests that many people don’t draw a hard line between “medical” and “recreational.” Someone might start using cannabis to manage anxiety or back pain and also enjoy the relaxation it provides socially. The overlap is substantial.
How THC and CBD Work in the Body
Your body has its own system of chemical signals called endocannabinoids that help regulate pain, mood, appetite, and inflammation. Marijuana works because its active compounds plug into this same system.
THC, the compound responsible for the “high,” binds tightly to receptors concentrated in the brain. That strong binding is what produces euphoria, altered perception, increased appetite, and pain relief, but it’s also what makes THC potentially habit-forming. CBD, the other major compound, doesn’t latch onto those same receptors with much force. Instead, it influences a range of other signaling pathways in the body, which is why it can reduce seizures and inflammation without producing intoxication or carrying significant addiction risk.
How Different Methods Change the Experience
The way you consume marijuana dramatically affects how quickly it hits and how long it lasts.
Smoking or vaping delivers effects within seconds to a few minutes. Those effects peak around 30 minutes and can last up to six hours, with some residual grogginess or mood changes lingering up to 24 hours. This fast onset makes inhalation easier to dose in real time because you can feel what’s happening and stop.
Edibles are a different story. Effects take 30 minutes to two hours to appear, and they peak around four hours in. The full experience can last up to 12 hours, with residual effects stretching to 24 hours. That long delay is why edibles carry a higher risk of overconsumption. People eat more because they don’t feel anything yet, and then the full dose arrives all at once hours later.
Interactions With Other Medications
One underappreciated concern is how marijuana interacts with other drugs you might be taking. Both THC and CBD are processed by the same liver enzymes that break down a wide range of common medications, including certain antidepressants, blood thinners, anti-seizure drugs, and heart medications. When marijuana compounds compete for those enzymes, they can slow down or speed up how your body processes other drugs, potentially making them less effective or increasing side effects.
Lab research has shown that even the byproducts your body creates as it breaks down THC can block several of these key liver enzymes. This means the interaction risk doesn’t end when the high wears off. If you take prescription medications regularly, this is worth discussing with a pharmacist or prescriber before adding cannabis to the mix.
Risk of Dependence
Marijuana is often perceived as non-addictive, but the data tells a more nuanced story. The CDC estimates that roughly 3 in 10 people who use cannabis develop cannabis use disorder, a pattern where use continues despite causing problems in daily life, where tolerance builds so more is needed for the same effect, and where stopping triggers irritability, sleep disruption, or cravings. The risk is higher for people who start using in adolescence and for those who use daily or near-daily. Most people who try marijuana will not develop dependence, but the 30% figure is far from negligible.