The Canadian Journal For Anesthesia recently featured a report that claims most doctors in Canada are not yet familiar enough with medical cannabis, and that new regulations place too much burden on these doctors.
Since 2013, there has been a boom in the number of cannabis producers and strains, and all of this can leave patients overwhelmed when coupled with doctors that can’t provide proper medical advice on the subject, according to the report. This was started by the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations(MMAR) were replaced with the Marihuana For Medical Purposes Reglations(MMPR).
The report states that “The rapid changes surrounding the medical use of cannabis has had a considerable impact on healthcare practitioners, who currently receive little or no education on issues regarding medical cannabis. As a result of this lack of education nationwide, patients are at the moment nearly left alone to decide which product to use, how often, and at what dose.”
The report also notes that since cannabis is still illegal, Health Canada doesn’t consider it a legitimate therapeutic drug and therefore has not issued any specifics when it comes to dosage or dosing schedules.
The need for more official scientific research on the benefits medical cannabis is mentioned in conclusion of the report. This is an obvious step that needs to be taken, and we can expect more research to be done as legalization is expected to proceed eventually in the nation.