When is cannabis use medical? When is it not? How do we decide?

The mandate of the Cannabis Knowledge Exchange Hub is to share evidence about the non-medical use of cannabis.

But what exactly is “non-medical” use of cannabis, and how do we differentiate it from “medical” use? This question is one to which our team returns time and time again.

One way to view the distinction is whether the cannabis is prescribed by a health care provider and accessed through the medical cannabis system.

However, we know that a lot of people who do not have a prescription for cannabis, and who access it outside the medical system, nevertheless indicate that their cannabis use is for a therapeutic purpose, to help with pain, insomnia, anxiety, or other symptoms related to physical or mental health.

Another attempt to differentiate between “medical” and “non-medical” cannabis focuses not on use, but on product. In this framework, a “medicine” is a substance approved by a regulatory body like Health Canada for safety, quality, and efficacy. These medicines contain active substances in precisely determined amounts, and so by this definition, while cannabinoid-derived pharmaceuticals like Sativex and Dronabinol could be called medicine, dried flower cannabis, which varies widely in its composition of cannabinoids and terpenes, could not.

I’m curious to hear what our Hub audience thinks! How should we distinguish between medical and non-medical when it comes to cannabis?