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Louis Metropolitan Medical Society came out against several potential ballot initiatives in 2018 that legalized medical use, including the one that became Missouri law. The Missouri State Medical Association is calling for the FDA to allow researchers to study medical cannabis, and the St. The American Medical Association has advised health systems to not recommend non-FDA approved cannabis use until doctors know more.

Major health systems have shied away from certifying medical marijuana patients, but pop-up clinics can certify dozens of patients a day.

Until those tests can be done, he’s just not comfortable certifying. “If we’re going to talk about cannabis as a medication, it’s important for us to have this medication reviewed, studied, establish a safety profile and understand what it does with the body,” Rottnek said. “Even though states have legalized medical and recreational cannabis use, at the federal level, it still has not been receiving a green light,” he said.īecause the federal government still classifies cannabis as an illegal drug with no therapeutic use, the usual methods used to test if drugs are safe or effective, such as randomized clinical trials and safety approval from the Food and Drug Administration – just don’t exist for most uses of medical marijuana. “I think that the cart’s in front of the horse a bit,” he said. Unlike other medical treatments, there isn’t an accepted standard of treatment for using medical marijuana for most of the state’s qualifying conditions, said Fred Rottnek, director of community medicine at St. “Given the complications I have with opioids, and the number of patients who slide into addiction with opioids, I find cannabis to be a much safer and helpful alternative,” she said.Įven though the state doesn’t require it, she provides patients with lists of potential risks and side effects of cannabis use, which include memory problems, lung disease, allergic reactions.

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“After that patient was certified, I saw a dramatic change in their quality of life.”įor Hurford, it’s important to explore how to decrease the use of potentially addictive painkillers among her patients. “I could not control their pain with medications, both opioids and non-opioids,” she said. Her patients, many dealing with chronic pain, started asking her about using it.Īfter conventional drug therapies didn’t help one patient, Hurford finally decided to give cannabis a try. After that state approved medical cannabis in 2013, she began to change her mind. “I felt like maybe it was a gateway drug, or there wasn’t enough science to support its use,” said Hurford, an orthopedic specialist in Kirkwood.

Patricia Hurford, one of the physicians certifying patients for medical cannabis in Missouri, was long skeptical of medical marijuana’s benefits.

But others, such as Lane’s rheumatologist, have refused, citing a lack of clinical evidence on medical marijuana’s safety and effectiveness and that the federal government still classifies it as illegal.ĭr. Some doctors have jumped on the opportunity to help patients use a treatment they’ve been wanting for years. “But it’s just gotten worse and worse, and they’ve run out of medicine to give to me.” “They won’t touch it with a 10-foot pole,” Lane said. Even though one of Lane’s doctors at Missouri Baptist Hospital was weaning her off opioid prescriptions, she wouldn’t certify Lane for a medical marijuana card.