Boom in unapproved medicinal cannabis products worries Australian experts

Description

Some patients are taking cannabis for conditions where there is little evidence it is effective, GPs and researchers say...

Dr Mark Morgan, a professor of general practice and chair of the RACGP’s quality care expert committee, said the influence of the industry may have led to levels of prescribing not justified by the evidence of efficacy.

“The industry has been guiding a lot of the education, facilitating a lot of the prescribing, and leading the marketing of these products,” Morgan said.

“There’s been marketing to clinicians and pharmacies about medicinal cannabis which is dressed up as ‘education’. But it is not independent, and therefore we have to question whether or not some of the prescribing is following the evidence, or going beyond it.”

Subject

Medicinical cannabis

Quality use of medicine

Evidence based practice

General Practice