Health Professionals: Be Alive to Issues Arising from Patient Cannabis Use

Health professionals must prepare for a spike in cannabis use among patients following the drug’s legalization later this year, Lonny Rosen tells AdvocateDaily.com.The federal government recently passed Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act, to govern the use and sale of marijuana for recreational use, while its partner Bill C-46 overhauls the country’s impaired driving laws.

And with the laws currently scheduled to come into force in mid-October, Rosen says physicians, dentists, nurses and other health professionals should turn their minds to policies on the drug if they haven’t already.

“The likelihood is that health professionals will be seeing more people with cannabis in their system,” he says. “This could be because of the stress related to a visit with a health professional, or simply because of increased consumption among the general public following legalization.

“Either way, it raises a number of important issues for them,” Rosen adds.