NAPCRG: MDS' CANNABIS OUTLOOKS AFFECT PATIENT TREATMENT

Researcher Says Doctors Should Be Able To Counsel Patients On
Responsible Use, Particularly For Chronic Pain

QUEBEC CITY | A new pilot study of family physicians that probed
primary care providers' knowledge of and attitudes toward their
patients' use of cannabis was presented at the North American Primary
Care Research Group meeting here.

Age, sex and whether or not they had ever personally used cannabis
were predictive factors for a willingness to discuss cannabis use
with patients, said study author Dr. Craig Jones (PhD), co-ordinator
of the Network for Studies in Primary Care at the department of
family medicine at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

"It's kind of don't ask, don't tell," he said of family doctors'
approach to their patients' use of cannabis. "But older male
physicians are more likely to ask."

Older male doctors were also more likely to understand that marijuana
use is not necessarily a pathway to harder drugs, the study found.

Dr. Jones and his colleagues surveyed 74 doctors at the 2004 Family
Medicine Forum in Toronto. The survey included questions about
Marijuana Medical Access Regulations, cannabis laws, which patients
get screened for cannabis use and why, and knowledge of the effects
of cannabis.

Stigma still exists

"There's still enough of a stigma around cannabis that people don't
want to come clean about it," Dr. Jones said.

Cannabis use is likely more widespread than surveys reveal, he added,
with aging baby boomers rediscovering the drug and its therapeutic potential.

"Family physicians should know that. We should know how to counsel on
safe and responsible use," Dr. Jones said. "Cannabis use is likely to
increase as people our age move into their elder years and start
medicating for chronic pain--it has huge implications for chronic pain."

There's a great deal more that needs to be known about physicians'
attitudes toward their patients' use of cannabis, Dr. Jones said.

"This is only a pilot study," he said. "We're in the process of
trying to get funding to survey the entire country."

Some of the data required are family physicians' basic knowledge
level about cannabis, how they screen for cannabis use among their
patients and how they counsel their patients who do use it.