A federally funded study just confirmed what millions of Americans have quietly been doing for years: reaching for CBD instead of—or alongside—conventional medications. The findings, published in this months edition in Frontiers in Public Health, offer the most detailed, nationally representative look yet at how people are incorporating cannabidiol into their health routines. And the numbers are hard to ignore.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego surveyed over 1,500 U.S. adults to understand CBD use patterns across the country. What they found points to a genuine, population-level shift in how Americans manage pain, anxiety, and other conditions. This isn’t fringe behavior. It’s a mainstream trend—and the data backs it up.
How the CBD Study Was Conducted
The research team, led by Emily A.C. Austin and Eric C. Leas at UC San Diego’s Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, designed a cross-sectional survey to capture a national snapshot of CBD use among U.S. adults.
Participants were recruited through Ipsos KnowledgePanel®, a probability-based online panel that covers approximately 97% of U.S. adults—including households without internet access, which were provided devices and connectivity to participate. From an initial invite of 4,505 adults, 2,880 responded (a 63.9% completion rate), and 1,523 ultimately qualified for the study: 1,008 who had ever used CBD and 515 who had never used it.
Researchers administered the survey in both English and Spanish and applied weighted analyses to make the results representative of the broader U.S. adult population. The survey asked participants about their frequency and methods of CBD use, the health conditions they were targeting, and—critically—whether they used CBD as a substitute (replacing a medication) or adjunct (using CBD alongside an existing medication) for conventional treatments.
The researchers also collected open-ended responses about why people used CBD this way and coded them into thematic categories. This added real depth to what could have otherwise been a surface-level survey.
Funding came partly from the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which makes these findings particularly notable—this isn’t a cannabis industry-backed study. It’s federally supported science.
What the CBD Study Found
CBD Use Is More Widespread Than Many Realize
The study estimated that 35.2% of U.S. adults—roughly 90.8 million people—have used CBD at some point in their lives. Another 21.8% reported use within the past 12 months alone. Those figures place CBD firmly in the mainstream, far beyond the niche wellness space it once occupied.
Nearly 1 in 3 CBD Users Are Replacing or Supplementing Medications
Among lifetime CBD users, 32% reported using it as a substitute or adjunct for at least one medication. Adjunct use—taking CBD alongside an existing medication—was more common at 24.2%, while substitute use (replacing a medication entirely) came in at 11.0%. A smaller group (3.3%) reported doing both.
Pain Is the Primary Driver
The conditions most commonly targeted were:
- Musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders (e.g., joint pain): 10.1%
- Psychiatric disorders (e.g., anxiety): 7.4%
- General disorders and administration site conditions (e.g., procedural pain): 6.8%
The medications most frequently replaced or supplemented with CBD included ibuprofen (4.8%), Tylenol (3.9%), general pain medications (2.9%), gabapentin (1.4%), and anxiety medications (1.1%). These are some of the most commonly used drugs in the country—and a significant portion of users are actively choosing CBD as a complement or replacement.
Why Are People Making the Switch?
Participants offered revealing reasons for their CBD use patterns:
- Experimentation: 84.1%
- Preference for natural remedies: 20.7%
- Avoiding medication side effects: 16.9%
- Avoiding dependence or addiction risk: 16.9%
- Medical recommendation: 6.5%
- Lack of access to medication: 5.4%
That “natural remedy” preference and dependence-avoidance motive are especially telling. They signal a deeper cultural shift—people are increasingly skeptical of pharmaceutical side effects and addiction risks, and they’re exploring plant-based alternatives on their own terms.
Most Users Aren’t Telling Their Doctors
One of the more striking findings: 82.3% of respondents said none of their CBD use had been recommended by a doctor or other health professional. People are largely making these decisions independently.
Safety Profile Remains Relatively Low-Risk
Despite concerns about concurrent use, the vast majority of users reported no adverse effects. Only 2.4% of ever CBD users believed they had experienced a health problem resulting from CBD use, and most of those appeared linked to accidental THC exposure rather than CBD itself.
A Natural Shift Away From Pharmaceuticals
The study’s findings don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re part of a growing body of evidence pointing toward cannabis and its derivatives as serious contenders in pain management and wellness—particularly as an alternative to opioids and other conventional drugs.
Separate federally funded research, published by the American Medical Association, found that marijuana can serve as an effective substitute for opioids in chronic pain treatment. Other AMA-published studies found that legalizing medical or recreational marijuana significantly reduced opioid use among cancer patients. They also found that nationwide, medical marijuana legalization meaningfully reduced opioid prescriptions.
An Australian study published in 2025 similarly found that medical marijuana significantly decreases opioid use among chronic pain patients. Research in the Drug and Alcohol Review found that daily cannabis use was linked to a higher likelihood of quitting opioids—especially among men.
The pattern is consistent: as legal access to cannabis expands, pharmaceutical drug use—particularly opioids—appears to decline.
This new CBD study fits squarely into that narrative. People aren’t waiting for formal clinical trials or FDA approval. They’re voting with their purchasing decisions, quietly substituting CBD for Advil, Tylenol, and anxiety meds, motivated by a desire for something that feels safer, more natural, and less dependency-forming.
Even the study authors acknowledged the potential benefits. They noted that if CBD, which has minimal side effects and a low risk of dependence, helps a consumer reduce anxiety and decrease or stop using a medication with more side effects or dependence risks, this could be seen as a positive outcome.
What the Study Doesn’t Tell Us
Credit to the researchers for being transparent about the study’s limitations. Because it’s cross-sectional—a single snapshot in time—it can’t establish cause and effect. It doesn’t reveal whether CBD use preceded medication changes or the other way around. It also relies entirely on self-reporting, which opens the door to recall errors and vague medication descriptions.
The study didn’t collect detailed information on CBD product types, THC content, or dosages in a meaningful way (most respondents didn’t even know how much CBD they were taking). And it doesn’t capture trends over time, so it’s impossible to say whether substitute or adjunct use is growing, shrinking, or holding steady.
These limitations aren’t disqualifiers—they’re invitations for more research. And with President Trump’s executive order in late 2025 directing federal agencies to reduce barriers to medical cannabis and CBD research, that research may finally be coming.
The Takeaway
This federally funded CBD study out of UC San Diego has confirmed that tens of millions of Americans are already using CBD as a substitute or supplement to conventional medications—mostly for pain, mostly without a doctor’s recommendation, and mostly without adverse effects.
The motivations are clear: people want natural options, fewer side effects, and lower addiction risk. CBD is increasingly filling that gap.
This doesn’t mean CBD is a cure-all or that anyone should abruptly stop prescribed medications. The authors themselves recommend “open, nonjudgmental communication so that patients feel comfortable disclosing CBD use, alongside a pragmatic, harm-reduction approach focused on safety.”
If you’re currently on prescription medications and considering incorporating CBD, that conversation with your healthcare provider matters.
What this study does confirm, however, is that the shift toward cannabis-derived wellness solutions is real, widespread, and backed by federally funded science. The people have spoken—with their shopping carts, if not yet their prescription pads.
