An association of medical marijuana-certified doctors is growing, and giving those physicians the chance to learn from one another about the development of treatment and best practices.
A group of doctors meets virtually around once a month to discuss a controversial topic: treating patients with marijuana.
Cannabis is approved to treat 21 medical conditions in Ohio, but research on the drug is sparse and surveys show that most doctors are still unwilling to recommend it to patients.
The Ohio Medical Marijuana Physicians Association, or OMMPA, organizes regular gatherings now online now because of the coronavirus pandemic so members can ask questions, share ideas and meet with advocates and industry experts who can offer advice on malpractice insurance or legal hurdles.
Founded in 2018, the group has grown from just a handful of doctors to dozens. And while concerns have been raised about potential conflicts of interest, members say the group helps them separate fact from fiction about an understudied drug.
“OMMPA provides a place where it’s real doctors who want to talk about real medicine, and that’s really refreshing,” said Dr. Bridget Williams of Columbus, who attends the meetings.
“If you just need to do a two-hour course to get certified (to write a marijuana recommendation) and that subject matter hasn’t been in any medical education or textbook, that (training) is probably not enough,” said Dr. James Weeks, an internist who works in Cincinnati.
Approximately 650 doctors in Ohio have a certificate to recommend marijuana, around 1% of the state’s practicing physicians, Weeks said. OMMPA meetings give those doctors a chance to learn from one another and grow, he said.
“There are so many varieties (of marijuana), and patients themselves are not all the same,” said Dr. Douglas Woo, an Athens-based neurologist with OhioHealth. The meetings help doctors learn about how patients react to certain strains or delivery methods, he said.
The association also lobbies the state. Managing partner Glenn Perry said the group sent a letter to regulators at the onset of the pandemic asking that doctors with marijuana certificates be allowed to use telemedicine. The state allowed the change.
But Gary Wenk, an Ohio State psychology professor who studies the effects of drugs on the brain, is skeptical about the group’s influence. Wenk lobbied the state medical board to approve marijuana for the treatment of childhood autism to no avail.
“I’ve tried to change their minds about policy issues for years without success,” he said.
Perry, a consultant, offered advice in 2018 to a doctor pursuing a medical marijuana certificate.
“She had a lot of questions on how to navigate the state requirements,” Perry said. “And as we were getting answers for her, we recognized that the information she was looking for might be valuable” to other doctors.
He reached out to already-certified doctors and found shared interest in starting an association. The group began meeting in 2019 and has grown ever since.
“Just in the last week we added two new members,” Perry said. “We’re hoping to reach at least 100 by the end of 2020.”
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, limiting research on the drug. As a result, physicians who recommend cannabis have only anecdotal evidence of its efficacy.
Dr. Zeeshan Tayeb, who practices pain management in Cincinnati, found most cannabis patients use the drug to treat chronic pain.
“It was something that I felt as a pain (management) provider I needed to learn,” he said. But “I felt like a lot of my colleagues steered away from offering medical cannabis as a potential option to treat pain.”
As an OMMPA member, Tayeb connected with other doctors and industry experts, and he hopes that will keep him up to date on changes to the program and alert him to any potential problems.
“I’m always willing to hear and learn,” he said. “There are things that come to light that we should be cautious of as providers.”
Meeting with people on the business side of the medical marijuana community concerns some doctors because of possible conflicts of interest.
“If the talks were limited to brand(s) that person had financial interest in and that wasn’t disclosed prior to the talk, that could be a conflict,” Dr. Joel Simmons, a Columbus doctor with a medical marijuana certification, wrote in an email.
Perry said the organization cleared its activity with Ohio’s pharmacy and medical boards, and he said he tells industry officials in no uncertain terms that they are not to use meetings as a forum to push certain products.
pcooley@dispatch.com
@PatrickACooley
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