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Study group did not view marijuana as a “high risk” drug
By Hempology | January 14, 2008
Ottawa Sun, ON
12 Jan 2008
Christina Spencer
MARIJUANA DAZES DOCS
New Study Reveals Doctors’ Knowledge Of Drug Comes Directly From Patients
Physicians who approve the use of medicinal marijuana say their clinical knowledge of the drug is hazy and they rely heavily on their patients to help them craft treatment plans, according to in-depth interviews with doctors conducted for Health Canada.
The doctors’ knowledge of medical marijuana “had most often come directly ( in anecdotal form ) from their patients’ experience with the drug,” concludes the study of physician attitudes done by Montreal firm Les Etudes de Marche Createc.
“This model obscures the boundary between physician and patient and contravenes conventional medical practice which relies almost exclusively on scientific evidence-based information.
“Many physicians expressed concern about this ‘blurring’ of boundary between patient and doctor.”
The study, for which interviews were done from March to June 2007, drew from a pool of 917 doctors across the country who were at that time treating patients with marijuana. The group was narrowed to 30 family doctors and specialists, with whom lengthy telephone interviews were carried out. The survey was recently posted on a government website.
POSITIVE EFFECTS
Overall, the group did not view marijuana as a “high risk” drug. “The majority agreed that the positive effects of marijuana for medical purposes outweighed its negative effects; the harmful effects of prescription drug abuse ( namely narcotics ) were considerably more of a concern and physicians maintained that marihuana was not physiologically addictive ( unlike narcotics ),” the study said.
But doctors still felt they needed to know much more about the drug, which, outside of authorized medicinal uses, is illegal to own, grow or sell in Canada.
Some doctors were not comfortable with government regulations surrounding medicinal marijuana, but most found the red tape less of a problem than “having to rely almost exclusively on their patient’s judgment and anecdotal experience regarding daily dosage.”
Part of the problem for doctors who support a patient seeking access to medical marijuana is that the vocabulary surrounding the drug is fuzzy.
Terms such as “puff” and “joint” can’t be quantified to measure dose, even though Health Canada sets a daily maximum of five grams. Physicians therefore turn to their “most experienced source of dosage information: Their patients.”
Individual doctors also said they feared that if it became known they prescribed medical marijuana, they would receive an “influx of unwanted patients” and might suffer some professional or social stigma in the wider medical community.
SAFE TO DISPENSE
Among the doctors interviewed, the study also found that all thought dried marijuana, supplied through Health Canada, could be safely and effectively dispensed by pharmacists.
Health Canada has authorized the use of medicinal marijuana for severe pain, nausea and muscle spasms among those with multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries or disease, arthritis, cancer and HIV/AIDS, and for seizures from epilepsy.
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