New research suggests that medical students aren’t learning enough about the risks and benefits of medical marijuana, despite 29 states and the District of Columbia allowing marijuana use for medical purposes. Researchers surveyed medical school deans, residents, and fellows, and examined a curriculum database maintained by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), learning that medical education is not addressing medical marijuana. “As a future physician, it worries me,” says Evanoff, a third-year medical student. “We need to know how to answer questions about medical marijuana’s risks and benefits, but there is a fundamental mismatch between state laws involving marijuana and the education physicians-in-training receive at medical schools throughout the country.” However, several states—Missouri among them—have not legalized medical marijuana, and published studies about potential risks and benefits of medical marijuana often are contradictory. So what are schools to teach? “You address the controversy,” says co-investigator Carolyn Dufault, assistant dean for education at the unoversity and an instructor in medicine. “You say, ‘This is what we know,’ and you guide students to the points of controversy. You also point out where there may be research opportunities.” The authors argue that as more states legalize marijuana for medical and recreational use, doctors need to have at least enough training to answer patients’ questions. “More medical students are now getting better training about opioids, for example,” says Evanoff. “We talk about how those drugs can affect every organ system in the body, and we learn how to discuss the risks and benefits with patients. But if a patient were to ask about medical marijuana, most medical students wouldn’t know what to say.” The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supported this research through a grant to the Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences. Source
