When New York awarded five licenses to manufacture and sell medical cannabis extracts in July, one of the big questions was the ability of the companies to have product available by early January when they are supposed to supply it to patients. While this is apparently not an issue, the program faces a big obstacle: Many doctors haven’t yet taken the required educational courses in order to recommend cannabis to patients. There are other barriers beyond formal education, including concerns about access to federal funding if the doctors are associated with a hospital.
Dr. Stephen Corn, founder of the Answer Page, the medical education website that provides New York’s physician training course, says despite plenty of doctors having signed up for or completed the training, most knew so little about medical marijuana that they still understand woefully little about how it can be used to treat patients.
Read Madison Margolin’s “Will New York’s Doctors Be Qualified To Recommend Medical Marijuana Come January?”: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/will-new-yorks-doctors-be-qualified-to-recommend-medical-marijuana-come-january-7897683
