The whole article is worth reading but this caught my eye.
The Australian Medicinal Cannabis Association (AMCA) said that without suspected adverse events being published and investigated it was hard to draw conclusions about the safety of medicinal cannabis products.
If the only organisation representing cannabis prescribers is unwilling to comment on safety what does that say about the state of the industry?
Just putting this here as several commentors seem to have misread my intention posting this here
Most responses here seem to assume that I’m opposed to medical marijuana, I’m not. I am in fact in favor of it’s use, appropriately, in select patients, as with any medication.
I also want to caution against conflating recreational use(which may be problematic but is usually fine) with medicinal use(which should be held to the highest standards of evidence as any medicine should).
Now, regarding the evidence to date, efficacy is well established for refractory epilepsy and spasticity in MS. It is quite well established to have a role in pain control. Evidence that it is superior to other treatments for anxiety is pretty scant, we hold antidepressants to a pretty low standard and cannabis fails to even be that good in the published studies.
In terms of safety we frequently see acute intoxication from prescribed cannabis and worsening of co-morbid mental health conditions is really common. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pains are all fairly frequent and I have seen one case of psychosis from prescribed marijuana. What’s more, we see these more commonly in emergency departments, psych wards and GP clinics now that it is easily available from unscrupulous corporate owned clinics.
The article isn’t claiming that medical marijuana is inherently dangerous or that it doesn’t have a role in medicine. It states, correctly, that the TGA has never actually assessed the safety of the vast majority of products on the market. This is concerning for anyone who might want to prescribe these with confidence.
@givesomefucks@lemmy.world @wesker@lemmy.sdf.org @Taleya@aussie.zone @Randomgal@lemmy.ca
As a GP I know very few doctors who don’t accept that cannabis or cannabis derived products have a role to play in medicine. I know even fewer who don’t see the recent rapid explosion of cannabis prescribing as reckless and dangerous.
I am prescribed medical cannabis, but I only use it occasionally when needed. I have no doubt it is over prescribed, but I’m not sure how much of a problem that is. I think many people who want it could get it on the black market if they tried. So having medical cannabis might not create more overall cannabis users.
@HalfEarthMedic now let’s talk about alcohol-related adverse events
When prescribed as medicine, alcohol related adverse events are effectively zero
@HalfEarthMedic touche
genuinely curious, is that a thing?
I believe that ethanol infusion is still standard treatment for methanol poisoning but outside my expertise
Heavy alcoholics can’t safely quit drinking cold turkey, so may be prescribed a number of drinks a day while drying out.
In the movies, they always show the injured character take a huge swig of alcohol, and then splash it all over their fatal wound and that fixes everything, so it must be true!
deleted by creator
Many aussies think one joint will drop you into lifelong psychosis. Go to Amsterdam where its legal to buy and they just think its another part of the range of substances there.
The expectation has a lot to do on perceived effects. No way a doctor is gonna get to the bottom of expectations, same way they don’t when they prescribe other drugs with their other dependencies and side effects.
User beware.
