Caring for Patients Using Medical Marijuana

Abstract

Since 1996, 33 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and all Canadian provinces have passed legislation legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Another 13 states allow use of low delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol/high cannabidiol products for medical reasons in some situations or as a legal defense to its use. Yet cannabis remains a Schedule I Controlled Substance, impacting not only the legality of a healthcare provider's prescription of cannabis outside of a medical marijuana program, but also the accessibility of marijuana available for research. The classification of cannabis as a Schedule I Controlled Substance therefore directly limits the amount of moderate- to high-quality human evidence regarding the effectiveness of cannabis for certain conditions, dosage, adverse effects, or safety. Regardless of the limited evidence, individuals are using medical cannabis products more frequently, and nurses are left without evidence-based, clinical resources when caring for them. To address this lack of resources, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Board of Directors appointed members to the Medical Marijuana Nursing Guidelines Committee to develop recommendations to guide nurses' care of patients using medical marijuana. This article presents their recommendations, which were published in July 2018, and various updates since that publication.