Whenever you get a new prescription medication, there are no questions as to how you should take it. You have complete instructions printed on the bottle. If the drug does not work as well as expected, you can go back to the doctor for a modified prescription. That is not the way medical cannabis works. Medical cannabis dosing is often a trial-and-error thing.
Prescriptions vs. Recommendations
There is a significant difference between a doctor’s prescription and a medical cannabis recommendation. A prescription is a legal document that constitutes a medical provider’s orders regarding a particular medication. The prescription dictates the drug, its dosage and delivery method, its frequency of use, and the amount the pharmacy is legally allowed to dispense.
A medical cannabis recommendation is completely different. Although a small number of states have fashioned their medical cannabis programs to mimic traditional prescriptions, most do things the way Utah does.
In Utah, patients procure a doctor’s recommendation to get a medical cannabis card. A patient then takes that card to a retailer like Cedar City’s Zion Medicinal, where a variety of medical cannabis products can be purchased. Zion Medicinal has a pharmacist on-site to answer questions or offer further advice.
At the end of the day though, the patient ultimately decides what to purchase. He decides the dosage he chooses to use, how the drug will be administered, and how frequently he will take it. State law also determines how much he can buy during any single visit to the pharmacy.
It Isn’t Black-and-White
Because doctors cannot legally prescribe medical cannabis, there are no black-and-white standards for dosage, delivery method, or frequency. But the issue runs deeper than that. Medical science also does not have access to a plethora of clinical studies designed to determine dosage and frequency. In essence, nobody in the medical community has access to dosing and frequency standards.
Where does this leave patients? It leaves them in the position of having to try something to see if it works. A patient might try different products and delivery methods. She might try different doses and differing levels of frequency. She keeps trying different combinations until she figures out what works best for her.
The Low and Slow Principle
Zion Medicinal’s operators say they advise patients to adhere to the ‘low and slow’ principle. This principle dictates that a patient new to medical cannabis start with the lowest possible dose and the least possible frequency. Under the advice of a medical cannabis pharmacist, he can then titrate as necessary.
For the record, titration is the process of gradually increasing dosage and frequency until the optimal therapeutic benefit is achieved. Successful titration requires regular monitoring along with slow, incremental increases as needed.
Patients are always in a better position when they work with a pharmacist on this endeavor. For their part, pharmacists appreciate when their medical cannabis patients keep highly detailed records of what they use, how often they use it, and how it makes them feel.
It’s Not Harmless
Figuring out the right dose and frequency is one of the keys to using medical cannabis effectively. It is not enough to simply visit a local dispensary, purchase some cannabis products, and then consume them willy-nilly. And in fact, doing so could be dangerous.
Despite what you may have heard or read cannabis is not harmless. When used medicinally, it needs to be treated like any other prescription medication. The big downside is that finding the proper dose and frequency tends to be a trial-and-error exercise. Hopefully that changes in the future.
