Cannabis In The Curriculum

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Subject: MN: US CA: Column: Cannabis In The Curriculum

Newshawk: Jay Bergstrom

Pubdate: Wed, 25 Feb 2004

Source: Anderson Valley Advertiser (CA)

Column: Cannabinotes

Copyright: 2004 Anderson Valley Advertiser

Contact: ava@pacific.net

Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2667

Author: Fred Gardner

Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

CANNABIS IN THE CURRICULUM

USC Med School Takes The Lead

"Any pain-management training that does not have information about cannabis

is committing malpractice." -Claudia Jensen, MD

On Feb. 13 students and faculty from the University of Southern California

Keck School of Medicine put on a half-day program devoted to the clinical

uses of cannabis and the relevant pharmacology. Some 30 first- and

second-year med students attended the history-making event in McKibben

Hall, which was organized by Rolando Tringale, a second-year med student,

and Claudia Jensen, MD, a Ventura pediatrician who is an Instructor in the

Department of Family Medicine.

Jensen teaches "Introduction to Clinical Medicine," in which first-year

students learn how to take a patient's history and conduct a physical exam.

Since the Fall semester of 2001 Jensen has spent a full day in the ICM

class talking about cannabis and bringing in patients for students to

interview. "They're open-minded and well educated," she says of her

students. "And they actually go on to teach their colleagues the truth

about cannabis. That's why Rolando wanted to do this

presentation." (Tringale had taken Jensen's ICM class last year.)

The Feb. 13 program started with first-person accounts from patients.

Jensen had invited Ishmael Gayes, nicknamed Eddie Green, "a paraplegic -a

very beautiful, intelligent, spiritual black man who was shot in the back

over a woman when he was 17;" chronic pain patient Lisa Cordova Schwarz;

and glaucoma patient Jim Carberry. Bill Britt, an activist from Long Beach

who has post-polio syndrome and epilepsy, also described his use of cannabis.

Joseph Miller, PhD, associate professor of Cell and Neurobiology, discussed

the pharmacology and biochemistry of the body's own cannabinoid receptor

system, which is activated by THC and other compounds in the plant.

Miller's research has been funded over the years by the National Institute

on Drug Abuse. "He's not a medical marijuana protagonist," says Jensen,

"he's not in the movement. He's just an honest man with a balanced,

truthful perspective about drugs who was willing to be a speaker."

Psychology professor Mitch Earleywine, PhD, discussed the question of

safety. Earleywine, the author of Understanding Marijuana (Oxford, 2002),

said that medical users could minimize negative consequences by vaporizing

instead of smoking. Earleywine also advocates "keeping dosage at a level

that relieves symptoms but doesn't create any impairment" and "monitoring

for any signs of craving that might indicate tolerance or withdrawal."

Earleywine has found that "the people who run into dependence problems with

cannabis are the ones who are drinking a lot of alcohol." He recommends

that medical cannabis users avoid alcohol consumption.

Attorney William Logan gave a talk entitled "Medicine Dances With

Lawyers,"explaining Prop 215 -California's Health & Safety Code Section

11362.5- and recounting the court rulings that affect its implementation.

Jensen's presentation was a version of what she teaches the first-year

students -"How do you tailor a history and physical to a medical marijuana

patient?... What dose and route of administration to use?... What strain to

use?" She also discussed "the advantages and disadvantages of having

medical marijuana patients in your practice." C-Notes will devote a column

in the near future to her observations.

Jensen had also invited -after getting administrative approval to do so-

Richard David, proprietor of the USA Hemp Museum, who brought samples of

hash, hash oil and other cannabis-based products, as well as some plant

strains (in jars), providing, for some of the students, a first exposure to

the once-prohibited herb

"How many of you use marijuana?" Jensen had asked. She says, "Probably

seven students raised their hands. I told them 'I am very proud of you

having the courage and the integrity to tell the truth, because that's what

this conference is about.'" Jensen also asked how many had or knew somebody

who had a condition treatable by cannabis. About 90% raised their hands.

Jensen says that the USC administration has been supportive of her efforts

to introduce cannabis into the curriculum. Althea Alexander, Clinical

Instructor for Educational Affairs, attended the Feb. 13 conference and

expressed gratitude to the patients who took part. Alexander regretted that

the event had been scheduled for the getaway day of President's Day

week-end; there would have been a much heavier turnout, she said, on an

ordinary Friday.

Jensen hopes that next year the conference will be held in October, "when

the students are freshest," and that it will be a requirement. (This year's

was not offered for credit.) Jensen had an insight about "elective"

classes when she was in med school at the start of the 1980s. "I took an

elective on 'Sexual Desensitization' and the only students who went to it

were the students who were comfortable with sexuality. All of the really

messed-up, up-tight people avoided it. So I don't think cannabis should be

an elective. I think it should be required training."

Jensen has also given thought to developing a continuing medical education

program for physicians, none of whom learned a thing about cannabis in

medical school. (Doctors are obligated to earn a certain number of CME

credits annually.) She has proposed to the administration that USC offer a

CME course on cannabis. Professor of Clinical Instruction Alan Abbott told

her he was amenable and would look into possible funding. Wouldn't such a

course pay for itself -or make money for the sponsor- Jensen was asked?

"Doctors are just scared of marijuana," she says. In 2000 she attended a

conference at UC San Francisco organized by Geoffrey Guy, MD, of GW

Pharmaceuticals. "It was poorly attended," she recalls.

Jensen thinks her colleagues in the medical profession will take steps to

educate themselves on the subject of cannabis only when they are obligated

to. And she has a strategy to obligate them. "The Medical Board of

California has dictated that physicians have to take eight hours in pain

management in order to maintain their licensure. My position is that any

pain management presentation that any physician takes is inadequate if it

does not include discussion about cannabis and cannabis compounds. The

Medical Board should take the position that cannabis teaching needs to be

integrated into those pain management sessions that physicians are already

required by law to attend."

Jensen is a pediatrician who practices in Ventura. She has a special

interest in cognitive function and development. She branched into treating

adults as a result of her interest in cannabis. She says that with every

patient she tries to figure out "the habits that are keeping them sick."

Jensen spends an hour seeing each new patient. She learned recently that

she is under investigation by the Medical Board for allegedly providing

substandard care to three ADHD patients (whose cannabis use she approved).