A “Viewpoint” article in the Journal of the American Medical Association June 16 is entitled “Medical Board Expectations for Physicians Recommending Marijuana.” Authors  Humayun J. Chaudhry, DO, MS, and Gregory B. Snyder, MD, are employed by the Federation of State Medical Boards. Their JAMA op-ed was written as a policy recommendation to that bureaucratic entity, which is based in Euless, Texas. Co-author Arthur S. Hengerer, MD, is an otolaryngologist at the University of Rochester (New York).

The authors “examine the dilemma of physicians caught between increasingly permissive local statutes and prohibitive federal regulations and summarize 10 recommendations about marijuana for patient care from the agencies authorized by statute to protect the health and welfare of the public through the licensure and discipline of physicians and other health care professionals.” 
 

The authors sought input from”interested stakeholders such as the American Society of Addiction Medicine” before the regulations were unanimously adopted by state medical boards at the Federation’s annual meeting on April 30, 2016.  Input was not sought from the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, whose members have vast experience monitoring cannabis use by patients. SCC MDs are hereby invited to weigh in to editor@beyondthc.com, on or off the record. Today’s recommendations could become tomorrow’s constraints.

Thanks to Paul Bregman, MD, for sending. —Fred Gardner