States with legalized medical cannabis leave the decision to issue medical cannabis cards to physicians. That makes sense. Physicians should be the most qualified to determine whether cannabis is a good therapy for a particular patient. But there is a problem: limited knowledge among doctors.
The big question is how much doctors really know about medical cannabis. And unfortunately, the answer is ‘not very much’. More importantly, doctors do not know as much about the human endocannabinoid system as they should to effectively determine whether cannabis therapies are appropriate.
Medical Schools Aren’t Training Them
It turns out that future doctors are not learning about the endocannabinoid system. Why? Because medical schools aren’t training them. Despite the fact that there are more cannabinoid receptors in the brain than all other neurotransmitters combined, endocannabinoid training has simply been ignored.
Changes to medical school training are absolutely called for. But until those changes occur, doctors coming out of medical school are not adequately equipped to deal with questions involving the endocannabinoid system.
All of this matters because the mechanisms behind how cannabis therapies could work relies almost exclusively on how cannabinoids interact with the endocannabinoid system. How can we expect doctors to fully understand cannabis therapies if they do not understand the underlying system such therapies are designed to manipulate?
Doctors Acknowledge Their Inadequacy
It is difficult to hold doctors accountable for their lack of knowledge. They do not control what is taught in medical school. In addition, doctors acknowledge their medical cannabis inadequacies.
According to a 2023 survey-based study, 58% of doctors worldwide have never recommended medical cannabis. An additional 34% reported not knowing enough about medical cannabis but still being open to it. Combine the two groups and you have 92% acknowledging that their experience with, and knowledge of, medical cannabis is severely limited.
Just 3.2% of the participating doctors acknowledged experience with prescribing or recommending medical cannabis. That is truly amazing when you consider that millions of people in this country alone are now regular medical cannabis users.
How the System Works
If you’re curious as to how so many people use medical cannabis when so few doctors recommend it, look no further than the states. In more conservative states, like Utah, steps have been taken to prevent medical cannabis card mills.
The operators of Salt Lake City’s Beehive Farmacy explain that the state licenses and certifies Qualified Medical Providers (QMPs). They also audit the QMPs to ensure that the law is being followed. Utah also allows Limited Medical Providers (LMPs) to recommend cannabis, but they are limited to just fifteen patients.
Other states are far more relaxed in licensing and certifying doctors. But the looser the rules are, the more likely a state is to see a larger number of card mills. For the record, a medical cannabis card mill is a health clinic that exists exclusively for the purpose of helping patients get medical cannabis cards.
Pharmacists Are the Answer
So what is the answer to the problem of doctors not being trained adequately? For now, it seems to be pharmacists. Bear in mind that pharmacists are medical doctors with a specialty in pharmacology. They have been trained in each of the body’s individual systems and how they react to certain kinds of drugs. A pharmacist with specialized cannabis training is the most qualified to advise on it.
The proliferation of medical cannabis indicates that doctors need to know more about it.
