Survey: Patients Okay With Their Doctors Using Cannabis

It is not unusual to see tobacco use depicted in the TV shows of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Back then, just about everybody smoked – even doctors. Seeing such a depiction in an old Perry Mason episode got me to wonder how patients would feel about their doctors using cannabis. Culturally speaking, cannabis is the new tobacco.

Well, I don’t have to wonder any more. I stumbled across a study published in the Journal of Hand Surgery Global Online. Based on its data, it would appear as though patients are okay with their doctors using cannabis outside of the office. I am not surprised given the generally accepting nature the culture currently has toward both medical and recreational cannabis.

More About the Study

The study was conducted as a survey of nearly 400 people utilizing services at four outpatient orthopedic surgery clinics in Pennsylvania. Medical cannabis is legal in the Keystone State. Recreational use is not. Survey respondents had a mean age of 55. Approximately 60% of them reported they had never used cannabis. An additional 11% reported using it frequently.

Here’s how the participants responded:

• 56% reported being okay with medical cannabis use among their doctors.
• 45% were okay with recreational consumption.
• 25% were strongly or somewhat against recreational consumption by doctors.

The survey also asked about alcohol and tobacco use. Approximately 64% were okay with their doctors using alcohol. Strangely, despite the amount of progress we’ve made in discouraging tobacco use, 57% said they were okay with their doctors using it.

Live and Let Live

Looking at all the numbers and comparing them says one thing to me: it’s not so much what people think about specific substances. Rather, survey respondents appeared to be demonstrating a ‘live and let live’ attitude. If doctors want to use alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis, so be it.

It would be interesting to conduct the same study in two additional states: one bright red and another bright blue. Utah and California immediately come to mind. Pennsylvania, though it generally leans blue, is more purple then you might imagine.

In Utah, only medical cannabis is allowed. And according to the Beehive Farmacy medical cannabis pharmacy in Brigham City, the Beehive State has one of the most conservative medical cannabis laws in the country. I am very curious to know how patients feel about their doctors using cannabis in Utah.

California is the exact opposite. The Golden State led the charge to legalize medical cannabis back in the 1990s. Today, the state allows both medical and recreational use. There are very few controls in place – at least as far as consumers are concerned. Is it reasonable to assume that California residents are more accepting of physicians who use cannabis outside of the office?

Probably Only a Matter of Time

The Pennsylvania study is just the latest in a long string of surveys showing widespread cultural acceptance of cannabis. My gut feeling is that it’s only a matter of time before all the shackles come off. It seems that at some point, cannabis will be as common – and as legal – as alcohol. We just need to wait out the few remaining politicians who cannot see their way clear to legalizing.

In the meantime, I also wonder just how many doctors use cannabis. I would dare say that few doctors still smoke in the 2020s. So among those doctors who do like to use cannabis, I am wondering if they prefer methods other than smoking it. These are the things I wonder at a time when cannabis seems to be growing more popular by the day.