Stay Informed on Medical Marijuana Laws, Research to Guide Patient Counseling

Leticia Shea, PharmD, BCACP, who is an associate professor of pharmacy at Regis University, discusses why keeping up to date on the latest medical cannabis laws and research is important for guiding patients.

Transcript

“I think it’s just important for pharmacists to be able to stay up to date on what the medical marijuana laws are in their state. It’s difficult to memorize it from state to state, so again then the National Conference of State Legislatures’ website for staying up to date on bills and statutes that are passing so that they know what’s legal in their states as well as what is not legal in other states. I have many patients that are currently using cannabis products. CBD oil is very popular, it’s topical. CBD, or the cannabidiol, does not have the psychotropic properties of THC so patients think that it’s benign and they want to travel with that. That’s a very common counseling point that I think pharmacists need to have with their patients. Even if it’s legal in one state, that doesn’t mean it federally legal.

And secondly, just to make sure that they know what they’re taking and stay up to date on what research is going on as far as drug interactions and outcomes associated with administrations. The difference in dosing and the type of administration and formulation, these are all really important things that we need to ask. It’s not just are you using or not, it’s how are you using, how often, what dosing, all of this is super important to make sure that we know the best information for our patients."