Focus put on education as marijuana legalization looms

Public awareness of possible harm from marijuana use will be part of a public campaign in the coming days as July approaches when the federal government will legalize the use of the drug.

“We will have a public education campaign around the legalization of cannabis,” a spokesperson for the Alberta Cannabis Secretariat said in an email. “However, the details of public education coming from the federal government have not yet been finalized.”

Federal government details are necessary first in order to ensure there are no duplicated efforts at the provincial level.

The Alberta College of Pharmacists and other health professional organizations have been very strong in advocating and recognizing potential risks that go along with cannabis use, said Greg Eberhart, registrar of the Alberta College of Pharmacists.

There is the need to make people aware of the risk and impact on early brain development in individuals up to their early 20s, said Eberhart.

“The last thing we want is to see policy roll out today that is going to negatively impact generations in the future,” said Eberhart.

So much of what to expect in the future depends on the regulatory structure Ottawa builds around this, and many details are still not known, Eberhart explained.

The Canadian Pharmacist Association, and a number of other organizations, are devel- oping educational materials for pharmacists and other health professionals on two levels. Pharmacists have a responsibility and role to inquire and have discussions about substances that a patient may be taking. This relates to prescription and non-prescription drugs including natural health products, vitamins and alcohol they consume including substances taken recreationally.

“We believe once federal legislation changes, so that cannabis is decriminalized, that will open up the discussion between pharmacists and individuals ... as it relates to their lifestyle and prescription medication,” said Eberhart.

The number of doctors prescribing marijuana has increased significantly. At the end of 2016 there were 329 doctors in Alberta registered to authorize it as a treatment for 5,254 patients. By April 2017, the number had increased to 495, and authorized patients approached 10,000, according to statistics published by the CPSA.

Even after marijuana is legalized patients wanting medical marijuana will still need to obtain “authorization” from a physician, said a spokesperson for the Alberta Medical Association. It is not a prescription but rather an “authorization.”

There are still many unanswered questions surrounding legalizing marijuana, such as whether it will be covered by health insurance, whether it will be part of hospital formulary systems and whether it will be monitored as triplicate prescriptions are, according to the AMA’s website.