Can policies be implemented to help the public better understand the health ramifications of cannabis use, specifically regarding the lack of medical information? This is what a recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the disconnect between cannabis use and the necessary medical knowledge those users might need to help manage their cannabis use. This study holds the potential to help researchers, medical professionals, and patients make better-informed decisions regarding appropriate cannabis use and patient treatment.
“Legalized cannabis is a freight train coming down the tracks and public health is going to get completely run over if it’s only set up, as the slogan goes, to ‘Just say no,’” said Dr. Daniel J. Kruger, who is a research associate professor in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Buffalo and lead author of the study. “We are saying the field should move toward harm reduction and health promotion, using the tools with which public health practitioners are already familiar.”
For the study, the researchers discussed a social ecological model (SEM) that examined the various factors that contribute to society’s understanding of cannabis use, including the level of substance use, personal behavior traits, social groups and institutions, public policy, and interpersonal relationships. The team emphasized the lack of quality data and information designed to inform cannabis users of the health risks relating to increased cannabis use and there exists a gap between the necessary knowledge and cannabis users that needs to be addressed and closed.
“It would be great if there were federal policies other than criminalization for cannabis,” said Dr. Kruger. “Right now, you have 50 states plus territories, all of which have a mishmash of rules and policies that don’t coordinate. You can have products coming into one state from another that might not have the same regulations.”
What new connections between cannabis use and medical knowledge will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: American Journal of Public Health, EurekAlert!
