Ohio physician attitudes toward medical Cannabis and Ohio’s medical marijuana program

BACKGROUND: Ohio’s medical cannabis program is one of three states that require physicians to become certified to recommend medical cannabis to their patients. The current study examines the attitudes of Ohio physicians toward medical cannabis and Ohio’s program to ascertain how likely physicians are to participate in Ohio’s program. METHODS: Physicians were invited to complete an internet survey that asked them about their concerns regarding medical marijuana, Ohio’s program, their likelihood of recommending medical cannabis, and becoming certified within the state. Ordinal and logistic regressions were used to understand the physicians’ likelihood of recommending cannabis, of becoming certified to recommend cannabis, and their attitude toward Ohio’s program. RESULTS: In total, 11,665 physicians licensed to practice in Ohio were contacted by email, and 344 responses were received for a response rate of 2.9%. Only 42 physicians reported being certified or had plans to become certified to recommend marijuana, and 62% were unlikely to recommend marijuana to their patients. Overall, the belief that medical cannabis should be legal had the greatest association with the likelihood of recommending cannabis (OR = .37, 95% CI = .24–.54), of becoming certified (OR = .21, 95% CI = .10–.38), and believing that Ohio’s program is too strict (OR = .39, 95% CI = .30–.51). However, the study sample precludes generalizing the results beyond this study. The 2.9% response rate could indicate a bias toward physicians who have strong opinions about the legality of medical cannabis. CONCLUSION: The results show that many physicians have concerns about medical cannabis and Ohio’s program, and many physicians may not participate in the program. This could be a problem for patients who would like to use cannabis for medical reasons; therefore, these patients, may need to utilize one physician for cannabis and another for regular care. Physicians will likely be caring for patients who are using cannabis regardless of their own beliefs about it. The lack of training regarding cannabis in healthcare, along with requiring “certified recommenders” to have training could result in a fractured healthcare system.