Storage and disposal of medical cannabis among oncology patients: assessing the risk of diversion and unintentional digestion.

2016 Jan 1

01/01/2016

PubMed:

Cancer 2016;122:3363-70.

By Sznitman SR, Goldberg V, Sheinman-Yuffe H, Flechter E, Bar-Sela G.

Background: Increasingly more jurisdictions worldwide are legalizing medical cannabis. Major concerns related to such policies are that improper storage and disposal arrangements may lead to the diversion and unintentional digestion of cannabis. These concerns are particularly acute among patients with cancer because they take home medical cannabis for extended periods and have high rates of treatment termination and mortality shortly after the onset of treatment with medical cannabis. Therefore, leftover cannabis is potentially particularly prevalent, and potentially improperly stored, in households of current and deceased patients with cancer. The current study investigated the risk of medical cannabis diversion and unintentional digestion among oncology patients treated with medical cannabis and caregivers of recently deceased patients who were treated with medical cannabis.

Methods: A total of 123 oncology patients treated with medical cannabis and 37 caregivers of deceased oncology patients treated with medical cannabis were interviewed regarding practices and the information received concerning the safe storage and disposal of medical cannabis, as well as experiences of theft, diversion, and unintentional digestion.

Results: High rates of suboptimal storage were reported and caregivers were found to be particularly unlikely to have received information regarding the safe storage and disposal of medical cannabis. Few incidences of theft, diversion, and unintentional digestion were reported.

Conclusions: Oncologists and other health care providers have an important, yet unfilled, role to play with regard to educating patients and caregivers of the importance of the safe storage and disposal of medical cannabis. Interventions designed to alert patients treated with medical cannabis and their caregivers to the problem of diversion, along with strategies to limit it, have the potential to limit diversion and unintentional exposure to medical cannabis. Cancer 2016;122:3363-3370. © 2016 American Cancer Society.

Keywords: disposal; diversion; medical cannabis; oncology patients; storage; unintentional digestion.

More publications on the subject

The cultural context of patient’s autonomy and doctor’s duty: passive euthanasia and advance directives in Germany and Israel

01/11/2010

Abstract The moral discourse surrounding end-of-life (EoL) decisions is highly complex, and a comparison of Germany and Israel can highlight the impact of cultural

Selected issues in palliative care among East Jerusalem Arab residents

01/01/2010

Abstract Understanding of cultural context is important when working with Palestinian patients, particularly in Israeli hospitals. Cultural competence includes individual assessment of communication needs

End-of-life needs as perceived by terminally ill older adult patients, family and staff

01/09/2010

Abstract Purpose of the study: A comparison of inpatient end-of-life needs as perceived by terminally ill older adult patients, family, physicians and nurses, is lacking.

The cultural context of end-of-life ethics: a comparison of Germany and Israel

01/07/2010

No abstract available

Family caregiving to hospitalized end-of-life and acutely ill geriatric patients

01/08/2010

Abstract The article examines family caregiving to hospitalized older adults at the end of life (EOL). The stress stress process model was used to

Blaming the messenger and not the message

01/06/2010

No abstract available