A long-established medical cannabis clinic and research organisation in Canada has begun recruitment for a study of patient outcomes from personalised medical cannabis treatment plans.
Santé Cannabis was established in 2014 and has supported 20,000 patients since it was founded. Canada’s first independently accredited cannabis Contract Research Organization (CRO), the organisation holds four Cannabis Research Licenses, facilitates clinical trials and observational studies, and is a recognized McGill University teaching site.
Santé Cannabis is leading recruitment of 3,000 patients for a new study that will explore patient outcomes over a 12-month period; including benefits, safety risks, substitution of medication and cost analysis. The study will run over 3 years.
Medical Director and Co-founder of Santé Cannabis, Dr. Michael Dworkind – who is also an Associate Professor in Family Medicine at McGill University – says while medical cannabis has been legally accessible in Canada for almost a quarter of a century, many clinical questions remain unanswered about its therapeutic use.
“This is such an important initiative to prioritize patients’ needs in the age of cannabis legalization,” he said.
The study will include outcomes from the use of newer products such as capsules, tablets and sublingual products, and cannabinoid formulations such as cannabinol (CBN) and cannabigerol (CBG).
The project is being supported by grants from industry partners Aurora Cannabis, Tilray Medical and Vectura Fertin Pharma.
“Canada should be a global leader in medical cannabis research and lead the charge to investigate potential substitution of harmful medications such as opioids, benzodiazepines and NSAIDs,” said Dr. Dworkind. “I’m proud to be part of this group of Canadian leaders, to drive this community-based study forward and fill this leadership gap.”
In other recent medical cannabis news out of Canada, Brock University released research on the impacts of legal recreational cannabis on the country’s medical market. It’s close to six years since Canada legalized marijuana for adult use. Health Canada data indicates that the month legalization came into effect, the number of medical client registrations with federally licensed sellers was 345,520. That had plummeted to 180,878 in March this year.
On a positive note, survey results released early this year indicates the proportion of Canadians purchasing cannabis legally rather than through illicit sources is increasing.
