“But my Doctor Recommended Pot”: Medical Marijuana and the Patient–Physician Relationship

Abstract

As the use of medical marijuana expands, it is important to consider its implications for the patient-physician relationship. In Colorado, a small cohort of physicians is recommending marijuana, with 15 physicians registering 49% of all medical marijuana patients and a single physician registering 10% of all patients. Together, they have registered more than 2% of the state to use medical marijuana in the last three years. We are concerned that this dramatic expansion is occurring in a setting rife with conflicts of interest despite insufficient scientific knowledge about marijuana. This system diminishes the patient-physician relationship to the recommendation of a single substance while unburdening physicians of their usual responsibilities to the welfare of their patients.

Use and diversion of medical marijuana among adults admitted to inpatient psychiatry

“…In addition, a majority of these respondents, 70.7%, also reported spending at least 20 minutes with the physician who recommended medical marijuana. However, 66.7% of respondents with a medical marijuana card also reported seeing the doctor only once or twice, suggesting these relationships are not ongoing patient- doctor relationships (3,24). The study suggests that many registrants are pleased with the state's medical marijuana system.…”

“…Colorado, where the medical use of marijuana was permitted in 2000 and the recreational use was permitted in 2014, has the highest per-capita use of medical marijuana in the United States (2); over 2% of the state's population is registered to use medical marijuana (3). To register a patient to use medical marijuana, a Colorado physician attests that a patient has one of eight qualifying conditions -cancer, cachexia, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, epilepsy, muscle spasms, severe nausea, or severe pain.…”

Irish General Practitioner (GP) Perspectives Toward Decriminalisation, Legalisation and Cannabis for Therapeutic Purposes (CTP)

“…Some States in the US have shifted their policy stance to permit use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes (CTP) (Chu, 2014). This legalisation in the form of de facto supply for medical use has not caused increased consumption, prevalence of use or related adverse consequences (Nussbaum, Boyer & Kondrad, 2011;Hall & Weier, 2015;Sznitman and Zolotov, 2015;Ziemianski, Capler, Tekanoff , Lacasse, Luconi & Ware, 2015) and according to one study has contributed to heightened patient perceptions of safety and awareness (Trout & DiDonato, 2015). (Ebert, Zolotov, Eliav, Ginzburg, Shapira & Magnezi, 2015), with Israeli rheumatologists observing a majority opinion for the role of cannabinoids in the management of rheumatoid disease (Ablin, Elkayam & Fitzcharles, 2016).…”

Potencial uso terapéutico de cannabis

“…Investigadores de todo el mundo disputan fuertemente acerca del uso medicinal de cannabis [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] . Las aplicaciones terapéuticas para cannabis y sus derivados son muy amplias; se describen acciones agonistas y antagonistas cannabinoides.…”