The number of prescriptions for medical marijuana has gone from 4,000 to 130,000 in just a few years. The Liberal government is about to table a bill that will legalize pot by July 1, 2018. The provinces are gearing up to manage the sale of the stuff.
Meanwhile, hundreds of businesses are springing up. And everyone is talking about a green gold rush.
And yet, very little is known about the long-term health effects of cannabis, says McGill University scientist Mark Ware. He’s determined to find out more as the clock ticks down to legalization.
He has embarked on one of the largest studies ever done on pot. So far it has recruited more than 1,000 participants. He hopes to have 3,000 within two years.
Ware is one of a growing number of Canadian researchers attempting to set a solid baseline of understanding about the effects of non-medical consumption on things like impaired driving and long-term health effects.
He served alongside Anne McLellan as vice-chair of the federal task force on cannabis that submitted the November report now helping to form the basis of the legislation.
In Ware’s study, Quebec patients are enrolled in a long-term registry to give researchers a better understanding of cannabis use.
The study will collect demographic data on the patients, strains of marijuana consumed, conditions for which they are seeking help and their own reports of positive and negative effects.
A previous study of 430 patients has already offered a tantalizing bit of information, Ware says. It indicted that cannabis might be able replace opioids as a treatment for chronic or acute pain.
Half the patients in the study were treated with cannabis while the other half continued using prescription opioids or antidepressants. The study found that, after a year, patients who were prescribed cannabis for pain medication had no noticeable difference in cognitive brain function or blood tests from those who weren’t.
“We’re tracking how cannabis can be used as an alternative to opioids for improving pain levels,” says Ware.
Canada ranks second in per-capita opioid use after the United States, and has seen an alarming increase in the number of opioid-related overdose deaths this year.
Ware believes that more research may confirm cannabis’s efficacy as a legitimate alternative to opioids and convince skeptics of its overall value.
The potential of pot has not been fully explored, he says, because it is an illegal substance. That has limited research.
Since the regulation of medical marijuana in 2014, there has been an increase in the number of what are known as “pharmacovigilance” studies. This is the practice of monitoring drugs after they have been legalized to evaluate previous unrecorded reactions.
Ware says legalization allows for more open conversations between researchers and medical practitioners about the prescription of marijuana. Many doctors remain hesitant about prescribing medical marijuana because there are so many unanswered.
Many previous studies have been conducted under the belief that cannabis is an illegal drug with serious effects, he explains. They focussed on the harm pot could cause rather than the benefits. As well, users have been hesitant to talk about what was an illegal activity.
Pressure on researchers is mounting as what is projected to be a $22.6 billion industry, providing lots of tax revenues to cash-strapped governments, gets ready to take off.
Canada has been able to watch other countries go through similar legislation and Ware believes the government has taken their time to get it right. The next step is to priorize the types of studies that need to get done, he says.
The state of Colorado knows all about the need for more research on pot. It has been recording THC levels of drivers in road accidents, student absenteeism and general use among young adults. The problem is they have nothing to compare it with. That is the reason behind Ware’s baseline study.
Ware wants the government to be more active in encouraging research. One possible avenue for that would be a federal health panel that would help decide on priorities.
Rebecca Jesseman, a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, is looking for a commitment from the government to delve deeper into reports of cannabis causing memory loss, respiratory issues and psychosis.
Unpacking the health impacts further, she says it is critical to conduct more studies looking at how the effects of cannabis change based on age and gender as well as how it interacts with other substances.
One of the main areas of focus for Jesseman is the impact of regulation on driving. She warns that there is still little known on the connection between consumption and levels of impairment.
“The science and research community will be looking for a commitment to investing in the research and monitoring activities that will allow us to track the impact of policy change,” she says.
Without a stronger sense of what is going on now, it will be difficult to accurately gage the impact of legalization in the future.
Jesseman explains that it is hard to say there is a tipping point where they would feel they have all the research they would need.
Instead, researchers like Ware will look to the government to vow that future amendments to regulatory structure are evidence-informed.
“Canadians can expect this to go on for a long time. This isn’t a quick fix, nor should it be,” says Ware.
Bobby Williams is a journalism student at Carleton University.
credit:420intel.com
