The impact of education on attitudes toward medical cannabis

OBJECTIVE: This research explores the impact of patient education on reducing historical and current stigma. METHODS: Participants were recruited through social media, parenting with community organizations, and snowball sampling. A pretest posttest method was utilized. Participants viewed five balanced educational videos about medicinal cannabis. Attitudes toward medical cannabis were measured with a modified version of the medical component of the Recreational and Medical Cannabis Attitudes Scale (RMCAS). In total, 111 participants completed all requirements of the study. RESULTS: Results of a Wilcoxon Sign Rank Test demonstrated a significant increase in the modified medical component of the RMCAS (1.18, p = 0.029). CONCLUSION: Health education is an effective intervention to reduce stigma associated with medical cannabis. Future health policies must take a balanced, education-focused, and proactive stance in reducing barriers to care that exist due to the negative stigma associated with cannabis use. Innovation: Historically, patient education has focused on areas such as tobacco, automobile safety, vaccinations, obesity, and the like. This research applied patient education to the area of medical cannabis to improve attitudes toward it and improve patient access.