Would you consider yourself fairly knowledgeable about marijuana? If so, how did you gain your knowledge? It turns out most of us do not turn to government and medical sources to learn about marijuana. What we know about it we learn from family and friends.
That could be good or bad depending on your perspective. Personally, I would rely less on what family and friends say if I was looking to start using medical cannabis. I would be more interested in hearing what my doctor or pharmacist had to say. I would even be curious about clinical studies demonstrating that medical cannabis would probably work for me.
I am guessing things are different when it comes to recreational cannabis. Recreational cannabis is a lot like alcohol. It is used for entirely different reasons, compared to medical cannabis, reasons that don’t require a lot of inquiry into government and scientific resources.
What People Are Saying
A nationally representative study, conducted as a survey of more than 1,100 adults, revealed that people turn to the government for information about marijuana only 4.7% of the time. That is not saying much. In addition, they turn to medical sources and healthcare providers 9.3% and bud tenders 8.6% of the time.
The two biggest sources of information are family and friends (35.6%) and publicly available websites (33.7%). Both sources are the least formal of all. Yet they appear to be the sources people trust most for information about marijuana.
Although the study data clearly shows most cannabis users are not interested in government agencies and healthcare entities as sources of information, there is something to note among medical cannabis users.
According to the data, people who report using medical cannabis are more likely than recreational users to cite healthcare professionals as a source of information. Medical cannabis users turn to healthcare sources at a rate of 16.4%. Non-medical users report a rate of 5.2%.
A Complete Disconnect
The bad news from this study is the complete disconnect between what consumers know and believe as compared to what government and healthcare sources have to say. It is a lot like consumers trusting friends’ opinions about their car troubles rather than taking their cars to qualified mechanics.
For me, this begs the question of how the majority of medical cannabis patients arrive at the decision to start using THC and CBD. For instance, imagine a Utah patient paying a visit to the Zion Medicinal medical cannabis pharmacy for the first time. He obviously has his medical cannabis card, or he would not be allowed in the door.
What led him to get that card? Perhaps a family member or friend told him that medical cannabis could help relieve his symptoms. He responded by applying for the card. Or maybe, during a regular visit with his primary care physician, the doctor recommended cannabis.
If the study data applies, chances are the customer applied for his medical cannabis card on the advice of friends or family. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but there is always the question of how much stock the patient puts in advice received from his doctor and pharmacist.
Not Always the Best Source
I get the fact that friends and family are highly influential in just about every area of life. Their influence is not limited just to cannabis. But family members and friends are not always the best source of information. Trusting them over government sources may be okay, but I would prefer to know what the medical community has to say about cannabis.