Lindsay Fischer with Oncology Nursing News recently interviewed Eloise Theisen, RN, MSN, AGPCNP-BC, current president of the American Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA) and a member of the Pacific College medical cannabis program faculty, for their podcast “The Vitals”. They discussed the possible benefits and challenges of medical cannabis for cancer, as well as how nurses can talk to their patients and monitor them for potential adverse effects.
Amongst other topics, Eloise and Lindsay talked about how the legality, availability, and accessibility of cannabis varies wildly from state to state. Given this confusing patchwork, Eloise encouraged potential patients to use only reputable sources such as Leaf411.org and ProjectCBD.org to find information, not random sites or social media posts, to ensure that they are getting high-quality care. In good news on the federal level, the DEA did recently begin allowing researchers to test cannabis found in dispensaries instead of that purpose-grown by the federal government. This is critical to building up practical evidence as dispensary cannabis has very likely evolved rapidly in recent years in both potency and effects.