Suppose you take three medications for three different conditions. Now, add medical marijuana. Wouldn’t you want to know possible risks and interactions?

That’s why the Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) recently recommended that pharmacists play a front-line role in patient management and dispensing of medical marijuana.

More patients are choosing medical marijuana as a treatment. As it stands today, many may be at risk by not receiving the same counsel and oversight provided for other drugs. For many patients, medical marijuana is a third or fourth line treatment, and these patients are often on a number of other medications. The potential for drug interactions increases and the need for pharmacist oversight becomes even more important.

As an association, our decision to update our policy position was not taken lightly. We remain concerned with the lack of robust clinical evidence needed to develop appropriate therapeutic guidelines for medical marijuana and to fully integrate it into existing drug schedules. [Read more at the Toronto Globe & Mail]