The Mental Health Professional's Guide to Addressing Medical Cannabis Use in Treatment

Course overview

In the United States, medical cannabis is now broadly or at least partially legalized in a majority of states, though it remains illegal under federal law. Traditionally, mental health professionals were trained to be attuned to the dangers and drawbacks of potentially addictive substances such as cannabis, yet we also sometimes work with clients suffering from debilitating biomedical conditions who might benefit from medical cannabis. With so much contradictory information about the risks, benefits, and efficacy of medical cannabis, how can busy frontline healthcare providers sift through fact and fiction to develop an evidence-guided approach to addressing the use of medical cannabis in a variety of treatment settings? This training was designed to provide counselors with an overview of research on the conditions that medical cannabis can effectively treat, the potential risks of medical cannabis, and a decision model that can be used to address medical cannabis use in a variety of behavioral healthcare settings.