Part 2: Training is coming – but it’s been a slow process and is hardly up to the level patients (and doctors) have a right to expect….
On the front lines of cannabis medicine in legal states, physicians struggle to find the education not generally available through their usual channels.
Solutions are being developed and deployed, as pointed out in this article, but the need is acute and present, while scaling up training is hindered by matters such as federal drug laws and skepticism from medical associations and medical schools (as TRUCE can attest from experience!) along with opposition from pharmaceutical companies who don’t welcome the new kid on the legal medicinal substances block….
“Medical cannabis has been legal in Maine for almost 20 years. But Farmington physician Jean Antonucci says she continues to feel unprepared when counseling sick patients…
Will it help my glaucoma? Or my chronic pain? My chemotherapy’s making me nauseous, and nothing’s helped. Is cannabis the solution? Patients hope Antonucci, 62, can answer those questions. But she said she is still ‘completely in the dark.’
Antonucci doesn’t know whether marijuana is the right way to treat an ailment, what amount is an appropriate dose, or whether a patient should smoke it, eat it, rub it through an oil or vaporize it.
Like most doctors, she was never trained to have these discussions. And, because the topic still is not usually covered in medical school, seasoned doctors, as well as younger ones, often consider themselves ill-equipped.
…medical uncertainty is complicated by confusion over how to navigate often contradictory laws… …many doctors feel caught in the middle, not completely sure of where the line is drawn between legal medical practice and what could get them in trouble.
…’Education is essential, given the complexity of how marijuana interacts with the body and how little physicians know,’ said Stephen Corn, associate professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Harvard Medical School.”
Much more in the article – including details about new and expanding programs. And bring on the training, please….!!
#MMJ #DRs #Training #UTpol #UtahNext #LetsDoThis #TRUCE
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See full article – Doctors face medical marijuana knowledge gap
