The CDC Urges Doctors: Stop Testing Patients for Cannabis
The multi-billion dollar American opioid crisis is reaching epidemic proportions. Even with medical cannabis programs established in half of U.S. states, hospitals routinely disqualify patients from pain management programs if they test positive for cannabinoids. Providers are essentially doing the opposite of what they should be doing, which is promoting safer pain management plans.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently issued its Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, which pleads with health care providers to stop testing patients for cannabis.
The opioid crisis in America is out of control, according to the CDC. Health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioids in 2012—enough for every adult man and woman to receive their own bottle. Painkillers killed 28,647 Americans in 2014 and the top culprits were morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, heroin, methadone, fentanyl and tramadol. Cannabis is appropriately absent from the list of drug overdoses.
“Clinicians should not test for substances for which results would not affect patient management or for which implications for patient management are unclear.” the statement reads. The CDC then goes on to urge doctors to “not dismiss patients from care based on a urine drug test result because this could constitute patient abandonment and could have adverse consequences for patient safety.” Before then, the CDC recommended testing patients in pain management for other drugs once a year. Now, the organization has recognized the error of its ways. Their message is simple; cease and desist.
Cannabis isn’t enough for every pain situation, but disqualifying patients from pain management for taking alternative pain medication makes no sense. Many patients with severe illnesses say that cannabis takes the edginess from opioids. The CDC’s new approach reflects how the modern world is handling the opioid epidemic.
