A new website designed to help clinicians and researchers evaluate the latest evidence about the health effects of marijuana has been launched by the VA Portland Health Care System and Oregon Health & Science University.
The Systematically Testing the Evidence on Marijuana or STEM website launched last month.
“The STEM site could help providers feel more comfortable discussing cannabis and help normalize conversations, similar to the process we have become so familiar with when talking to patients about alcohol use,” said Dr. Devan Kansagara, professor of medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine and a staff physician at the Portland VA in a release.
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VA doctors do have the green light to talk about marijuana with their patients but many don’t because it remains prohibited under federal law and is on the Federal Drug Administration’s Schedule 1 Controlled Substances list. The VA’s website states that any illegal substance on the federal level is not permitted to be used, recommended, prescribed, or endorsed by the VA, including the recommendation that veterans use pot to alleviate Post Traumatic Stress symptoms or pain.
“Providers have not become familiar with the health effects of cannabis,” said Kansagara. “That’s partly because we’ve lacked the evidence we like to see when recommending treatments to patients, and partly because of a lack of familiarity with terminology and practical issues about cannabis.”
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The new website is designed as an independent, methodologically rigorous resource primarily for health care workers and does not take a position on whether marijuana should be a part of treatment. Instead, it highlights news reports on studies showing the possible therapeutic application of marijuana.
The site features living systematic reviews that examine and update evidence about specific cannabis-related topics, such as treatment of chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder, exposure during pregnancy, and cannabis use disorder.
The website also includes clinician briefs, which address topics like cannabis for chronic pain or cannabis as a substitute for opioids in patients with chronic pain.
In written testimony submitted last year to a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, three veterans service organizations, Military Veterans of America, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and Disabled American Veterans supported a policy change to increase access to or increase research on medical marijuana.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.