Cannabidiol and Pain Management: What Pharmacists Should Know

Jeffrey Fudin, PharmD, DAIPM, FASHP, FFSMB, explains key facts pharmacists should know about cannabidiol products and pain management. This video was filmed at the ASHP (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists) 54th Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Jeffrey Fudin, PharmD, DAIPM, FASHP, FFSMB: Now personally, I don’t care whether it’s efficacious. If a patient feels that it’s helping them, and it has a low level or no THC in it, that’s fine. There are all kinds of patient advocacy groups and patients that will speak out based on their experience, and they’ll say, “It’s helped me with anxiety,” “It makes me sleep better,” “It’s helped with my pain.” And that’s OK. But as pharmacists and as prescribing clinicians, we cannot make that claim. And the FDA has made it very clear, and there are certain companies under scrutiny by the FDA because they are making these claims on their website. It’s OK to say that people have experienced some benefit, but you should also say in that same sentence that there is no clear evidence, nor has it been studied or approved by the FDA for pain, for anxiety, for sleep, for whatever. And that’s very, very important, if the pharmacist is selling that, to say that.