Canada has always been a leader in the cannabis industry having a fairly robust legal medical cannabis program since 2001, but the interest in using cannabis for medical purposes was really spurred once recreational cannabis became legal last October. More and more of the canna-curious are asking their physicians how they can use cannabis to treat their symptoms but a major problem is that the information is not available.  

In response to the lack of information available to physicians and patients, CannabisMedEd, a self-learning training program, was created. CannabisMedEd is aimed at physicians and other healthcare professionals to be a source of ethical, medical education on medical cannabis and to “invite the medical community in to actively participate in shaping the future.”     

“There is currently a huge knowledge gap in the medical profession with respect to medicinal cannabis in terms of managing patients,” said Jennifer Mason, co-founder of the program. “We want to bridge that gap by offering self-learning, medical education courses taught by doctors, scientists and educators.”

Mason, president of JLM Marketing, co-founded and co-produced CannabisMedEd with CME Travel, an agency that provides healthcare professionals with continuing medical education within Canada and around the world. The program stems from the obvious need for in-depth, medical cannabis education and for the healthcare professionals and patients who want to treat their medical issues.

The program launches this month with educational sessions taking place on June 10 at McMaster University in Hamilton and June 12 at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. Healthcare professionals will have the opportunity to learn from other professionals about the benefits of cannabis for their patients and how it should be prescribed. A public event for patients and anyone interested in learning about medical cannabis will take place on June 13 at the University of Toronto.

Included in the list of speakers is Rahim Dhalla, PharmD, MBA, RPh, owner and founder of Hybrid Pharm, a wellness pharmacy specializing in a multi-modal approach to healthcare and includes access to medical cannabis.

“This is still all so new, so one of the biggest issues, I believe, is that we just we never learned any of it when we were in school,” said Dhalla. “Most doctors just have no idea how to prescribe it, so that’s why education like this is so important.”  

A few of the topics that will be covered during the sessions are what products and strains are out there, why cannabis is having such an impact on the medical community and what evidence there is to support its benefits.

Spokespersons from Strainprint, a leader in medical cannabis data, will also be at both the education sessions and public event to discuss how their technology can help both healthcare professionals and patients navigate how various strains and cannabis products can benefit them.

Strainprint uses innovative technology that allows patients to track their sessions through the Strainprint app to discover which products are working best to treat their symptoms. The crowdsourced data can now help the healthcare community understand how patients are successfully treating their symptoms to better understand how to treat other patients.

With more Canadians choosing to use cannabis to treat their symptoms, it's important that the physicians and healthcare workers are equipped with the resources and information necessary to safely and effectively treat their patients. The world is watching as Canada's legal industry flourishes making programs like CannabisMedEd a necessary part of Canada's medical cannabis community. 

“Canada can set that standard and create a system that can be the foundation of a global framework as cannabis legalization spreads throughout the world,” said Mason. “The world is watching and Canada has a unique opportunity to trailblaze an educational system that ensures the appropriate prescription of medicinal cannabis.”

Education Sessions:

Monday, June 10, 2019, 8:00 am to 6:00 pm 
McMaster University, Hamilton

Wednesday, June 12, 2019, 8:00 am to 6:00 pm
MaRS Discovery District, Toronto

Public Event:

Thursday, June 13, 2019, 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
University of Toronto, Chestnut Conference Centre

For more information about CannabisMedEd or to register for the event visit cannabismeded.com