Men Prefer Medical Marijuana With High Amounts of THC, New Study Shows

The new research surveyed more than 35,000 men about their medical marijuana habits and found that reasons for cannabis use were near identical across gender groups.

Call it lingering machismo or simply a high tolerance, but when men are looking for medical marijuana products, they want something that packs a punch.

According to a new study from New York City-based data firm Ryah that surveyed more than 35,000 US medical marijuana patients, guys use medical cannabis to combat the exact same ailments as women, but often seek out products with higher quotients of THC. Ryah researchers also concluded that men often used cannabis daily and entered medical marijuana programs with previous experience with the plant.

“Understanding each gender’s relationship with medical cannabis is critical for refining treatments and increasing successful patient outcomes,” Gregory Wagner, Chief Executive Officer of Ryah, said in a press release. “We were surprised to see that over 77.8% of the males surveyed were using medical cannabis for treatment on a daily or nearly daily basis and many of them had previously used cannabis for medical or recreational purposes.”

In a nearly exact replica of recent data collected on women’s medical cannabis use, men said that they most frequently sought out medical marijuana for anxiety, stress, depression, and pain relief. When it came to specific strains, men who responded to the Ryah survey said that they preferred high THC strains like Gorilla Glue, Super Lemon Haze, and 3 Kings. 

Of course, gender differences are often irrelevant when it comes to personality or preferences, and that counts for weed, too. When it comes to men and marijuana, not everything is testosterone and high THC. In the Ryah survey, respondents also noted that the high-CBD, low-THC strain AC/DC worked better than THC-dominant varietals for treating ADHD. 

Without traditional sales and market data thanks to the country’s piecemeal legalization map and marijuana’s still-tenuous legal standing, firms like Ryah are confident that their industry insights can help better inform the way marijuana is both marketed and medicinally prescribed.

“We hope that medical providers and researchers will be inspired to further study medical cannabis treatments that are personalized to achieve effective patient outcomes,” Wagner said.