The rapidly swelling number of medical cannabis patients is outstripping Canadian health careâs ability to handle them, a Calgary physician who prescribes the substance said Friday.
The legalization of recreational pot has lessened the drugâs stigma, sparking a huge boom in the number of Canadians registering as medical marijuana patients with the federal government, said Dr. Sana-Ara Ahmed, an anesthesiologist and chronic pain specialist.
A year ago, there were 250,000 people registered and by last December there were 350,000, she said.
âI think the number now is more like 400,000 â itâs a startling increase,â she said.
âThe challenge Iâm facing as a physician is the industry is focused on a market thatâs no longer medical. They do not think cannabis is a medication.â
That numberâs expected to hit one million patients by 2025, added Ahmed, who addressed the Canadian Cannabis summit in downtown Calgary on Friday.
But she said only five per cent of physicians are prescribing cannabis as a medicine.
âThat discrepancy bothers me ⦠physicians need to understand the cannabinoid system and its interactions,â said Ahmed.
âSo many years of drug prohibition made it hard to have those discussions.â
Since legalization last October, she said, thereâs been a misguided mindset that medical users can simply help themselves with readily available cannabis products without medical guidance.
And even then, thereâs been a shortage of prescribe-able product like CBDs, or non-psychoactive cannabidiol thatâs used widely for medical purposes.
âShortages of CBD oil and dried flower are frustrating for a physician who knows better,â said Ahmed, who advises provincial health-care officials on pain reduction.
That problem extends to a frequent inability to prescribe sufficient amounts of cannabis products to patients, who often canât afford it, said Ahmed.
âThe majority of my patients are on disability and are not working ⦠if they canât afford it at the level they need, my hands are very limited in taking care of them.â
In one way, Ahmed said she understands the medical communityâs reluctance to sanction medicinal cannabis due to major gaps in research, which sheâs hopeful will change under legalization.
But in the meantime, that lack of data could lead to opportunities being missed to use pot more to reduce dependence on and overdoses from opioids suggested by some studies.
A Calgary man who operates a black market dial-a-delivery operation said heâs long served medical patients who have nowhere else to turn and has even provided cannabis for those who canât afford it.
âWeâre getting seniors reaching out, they want us to come out to the old folksâ home to provide for them,â said Greg, who operates an outfit called Medi Man.
âUntil the government catches up with what the medical community has known for decades, we will try to ease the burden for someone and their family.â
A lack of research into cannabisâs health-care merits has understandably prevented most Canadian physicians from embracing it as medicine, said Dr. Gigi Osler, president of the Canadian Medical Association.
âTherefore, we continue to urge the government to invest resources and funding in independent research to assess the impact of cannabis in health and health care,â Osler said in a statement.
âAs more scientific evidence becomes available, we will work with the government and physicians to better understand how this might fit into current medical practice.â
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