The medical community in Western Canada is catching on to the knowledge that cannabis is a highly-effective natural medicine.
According to the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons, the number of doctors in the province of Alberta who prescribe cannabis to their patients has increased by 50 percent in the last four months.
At the end of 2016, 329 doctors were registered to authorize medical marijuana prescriptions for 5,254 people. By April of this year, that number climbed to 495 doctors prescribing to 9,995 people.
“Almost every single patient I have has asked about it,” said Dr. Lori Montgomery in an interview with the CBC. Dr. Montgomery is a Calgary-based chronic pain physician who has prescribed medical cannabis and regularly talks to health-care providers about the medicine.
Montgomery added that she believes community-based doctors are more open to prescribing marijuana than in previous years.
“Over the last year or two, people are more comfortable having that conversation. There are increasingly individual physicians who are saying, for a patient that I know well and I’m comfortable with their risk factors, I’d be prepared to authorize it for one or two patients, which is different from a year ago,” she noted.
While the medical community in Alberta increases its acceptance of cannabis-based treatments, the province itself is gearing up for the inevitable legalization of adult-use cannabis.
A survey in Alberta regarding the framework of how legalization will look in Canada’s energy province saw over 35,000 respondents. The submission period closed on July 31st and the government is now in the process of reviewing the results.
credit:marijuana.com