Prescribing Medical Marijuana

Doctors who prescribe medical marijuana can be hard to find. But why is this?

There are 30 states in the US that allow medical marijuana for patients - so why is it difficult to find a doctor to prescribe you marijuana?The answer is simple - the recent advancements of marijuana and health has not been updated into the medical school systems.The doctors who are recommending cannabis have almost no formal education on the subject, making them unprepared to prescribe medical marijuana. Doctors are not equipped with the training or knowledge to prescribe it.[parallax] [/parallax] Legally doctors cannot call it a “prescription.” They lack the knowledge and training that was required for all the drugs they can legally prescribe. More importantly prescribing cannabis violates federal policy.Medical marijuana recommendations are most often written out by doctors, but a new study shows about 90 percent of doctors learn nothing about weed in medical school.

The Association of Medical Colleges database revealed that only nine percent of medical schools teach their students about medical marijuana. Curriculum deans at over a hundred medical schools administered surveys about marijuana education. Over two-thirds of graduates claimed they weren’t prepared to prescribe medical marijuana. One-quarter of graduates said that they wouldn’t even be able to answer questions on the subject.

The quickest solution to that gap in doctor’s education is to include medical marijuana courses in medical school.  Medical education needs to catch up to marijuana legislation.