MONCTON, N.B. – With more than 26,000 Canadians licensed to legally use medical marijuana to help manage their arthritis, the Arthritis Society of Canada is calling for more research into the controversial drug.
The Society is calling for more in-depth clinical trials to provide concrete evidence the drug actually works.
Paul Reader hopes that happens soon. He’s been suffering with debilitating osteoarthritis since getting into a severe motor vehicle accident 11 years ago.
“I should have died in that truck accident, it would have been less painful,” Reader said.
Two weeks ago, Reader asked his doctor about trying medical marijuana to treat his pain.
“I asked her about it and her being a new doctor she really didn’t want to give an opinion really.”
The Arthritis Society of Canada says some Canadian doctors are reluctant to authorize the use of medical cannabis due to a lack of research.
President Janet Yale wants to see that change.
“Under the current regime it really is up to the physicians to prescribe medical cannabis and obviously they are uncomfortable doing it with a lack of good data about dosage, form, quality and what kind of cannabis is appropriate depending on what kind of arthritis the person is suffering from,” Yale said.
The College of Family Physicians has created new guidelines to help doctors determine if and when a patient should have access to medical marijuana.
But the Arthritis Society wants more research and will be investing in more concrete clinical trials in the coming year.
Homeopathic doctor Peter Ford has been using longtime legal synthetic cannabinoids to treat his patients with chronic pain and believes the more natural form of medical marijuana is an even better pain reliever.
“It’s worth a trial. Does it always work? No, but nothing always works, but we do get some benefit.”
Meanwhile Reader is hoping he won’t have to wait for new research.
“It’s a crummy life, it really is, with all this arthritis.”
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