Chief of Palliative Care, Dr. David Casarett, was recently featured in a video on TEDMED, an independent health and medicine edition of the famous TED conference. His segment is entitled, "A doctor's case for medical marijuana".
Because Casarett believed his knowledge about the benefits and harms of medical marijuana was limited, he decided to do some investigative searching of his own. He found evidence of benefits for medical marijuana, found there are risks of taking medical marijuana, but, most surprisingly, that patients using this form of medicine felt more in control over their illness. Further, he learned that patients are getting significant attention, personalized education and service in the medical marijuana clinic. He challenges us, besides more research, to consider what the mainstream healthcare system can learn from medical marijuana dispensaries.
"Many patients seek treatment at medical marijuana dispensaries because of the superb customer service and sense of control over illness they offer, not because they consider marijuana a wonder drug," says Casarett.
Click here to watch his full TEDMED talk.
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Dr. Casarett is the author of more than 100 journal articles, numerous magazine articles, and 3 books, including, Stoned: A Doctor’s Case for Medical Marijuana.