American adults typically don\u2019t get their information about about marijuana from government or medical sources, instead relying mostly on friends and family, according to a new study that was partially funded by a federal agency.<\/p>\n
The nationally representative survey of 1,161 adults found that government agencies were the least popular source of cannabis-related information (4.7 percent in the probability-weighted results). And while health and medical care providers were also among the least common sources, at 9.3 percent, they were higher on the list than budtenders (8.6 percent).<\/p>\n
The most popular sources of marijuana information, meanwhile, were friends and family (35.6 percent) and websites (33.7 percent).<\/p>\n
The study, which received support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and was published this month in the Journal of Cannabis Research, concludes that most people \u201cdraw healthcare information about cannabis from friends and family or online, with very few consulting their healthcare provider or government agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notably, people who reported using cannabis for medical reasons were significantly more likely than others to cite healthcare professionals as a source of their marijuana-related information compared to other respondents (16.4 percent versus 5.2 percent, respectively).<\/p>\n
Given the trend toward liberalization of cannabis policies in the U.S.\u2014and what the paper describes as potentially \u201cbroad effects on public health outcomes related to cannabis\u201d if marijuana is moved from Schedule I to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act\u2014the paper urges more attention to ensuring healthcare providers are educated on cannabis-related matters and that government messaging is handled with care.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs cannabis accessibility and legality is increasing,\u201d it says, \u201cthere is a strong need for better clinician education, public outreach strategies, and improved communication between patients and clinicians about cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n
NORML\u00a0Deputy Director Paul Armentano said of the new survey findings that cannabis use \u201cis not a new phenomenon and is not going away\u201d and that sources like healthcare providers and government agencies have a responsibility to seek out and provide accurate information.<\/p>\n
\u201cHistorically, government-affiliated sources have either embellished or outright lied about marijuana and its effects,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s no wonder that the public doesn\u2019t consider them to be credible sources for marijuana-related information.\u201d<\/p>\n Healthcare providers, Armentano added, \u201chave a responsibility to keep up with cannabis-related sciences and trends so that they can engage with their patients, just as they would stay informed and provide advice regarding any other number of behaviors that potentially impact their patients\u2019 health and well being.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, the new paper\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0authors wrote that their findings show that \u201cinsufficient physician education may exacerbate misinformation about cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSurveys and qualitative studies demonstrate that many physicians and medical students desire further relevant training (especially during medical school),\u201d it notes, citing past reports, \u201cbut only 9% of medical schools in 2016 offered medical cannabis-specific curricula.\u201d<\/p>\n Of the 1,161 people surveyed by the research team\u2014consisting of authors from the University of Michigan\u2019s Psychedelics Center and its schools of medicine and public health, as well as from Legacy Research Institute in Portland, Oregon\u201427 percent overall said they\u2019d used marijuana in the past year.<\/p>\n Results showed that people who reported past-year use were more likely to report getting information from \u201call information sources except government agencies and popular media articles.\u201d<\/p>\n A separate study into the Reddit community r\/saplings as a source of marijuana information, meanwhile, found that youth seeking out information on the subreddit see it as a \u201cviable outlet\u201d despite it often having a lack of verifiable facts<\/a>.<\/p>\n The shortcoming could reveal an opportunity, said authors of that study, noting that interventions\u2014including, potentially, on Reddit itself\u2014that \u201cprovide understandable and accurate information in accessible formats may increase young people\u2019s ability to access and practice harm reduction.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently published a wide-ranging series of scientific reports on marijuana and cancer<\/a> as part of an effort to better understand \u201ccore questions\u201d around patients\u2019 relationship with cannabis\u2014including sourcing, cost, behavioral patterns, patient\u2013provider communications and reasons for use.<\/p>\n A separate federally funded study published by the American Medical Association found recently that majorities of both pain patients and doctors say insurance companies should cover medical marijuana<\/a>. That includes nearly two thirds (64 percent) of pain patients and just over half (51 percent) of physicians.<\/p>\n Another recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that most marijuana consumers use the drug to treat health issues at least sometimes, but very few consider themselves medical marijuana users<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cLess than half the patients who used cannabis reported using it for medical reasons, even though the majority of patients reported cannabis use to manage a health-related symptom,\u201d authors of that study wrote. \u201cGiven these discrepant findings, it may be more useful for clinicians to ask patients what symptoms they are using cannabis for rather than relying on patient self-identification as a recreational or medical cannabis user.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis aligns with another study that found that this type of cannabis use is clinically underrecognized,\u201d they added, \u201cand without specifically screening for medical cannabis use, clinicians may not ask and patients often do not disclose their use.\u201d<\/p>\n Health Providers Say Education On Colorado\u2019s New Psychedelics Program Will Be Key To Its Success<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Most People Don\u2019t Trust The Government For Marijuana Information, Federally Funded Study Shows<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
American adults typically don\u2019t get their information about about marijuana from government or medical sources, instead relying mostly on friends and family, according to a new study that was partially funded by a federal agency. The nationally representative survey of 1,161 adults found that government agencies were the least popularContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,15462],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78234"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78235,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78234\/revisions\/78235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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