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U.S.: New CDC Guidelines Instruct Pain Doctors Not To Test For THC

Thu, 03/17/2016 - 18:48 - steveelliott

By Steve Elliott

Hemp News

Long-awaited guidelines on prescribing opioid medications for pain, from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, instruct physicians not to test patients for THC and its metabolites.

This is a much-needed development, particularly as many pain patients nationwide, especially veterans, have had their painkiller prescriptions canceled and care terminated because of showing up positive for marijuana.

"Urine drug testing results can be subject to misinterpretation and might sometimes be associated with practices that might harm patients (e.g., stigmatization, inappropriate termination from care)," the guidelines state, reports California NORML.

"Clinicians should not test for substances for which results would not affect patient management or for which implications for patient management are unclear,” the CDC guidelines state. "For example, experts noted that there might be uncertainty about the clinical implications of a positive urine drug test for tetrahyrdocannabinol (THC).”

"Indeed, we applaud the CDC's reasoned approach to the use of urine testing and its drawbacks when used on pain patients," said Ellen Komp, Deputy Director of California NORML. "Considering that opioid overdose deaths are significantly lower in states with medical marijuana programs, we are sorry the agency apparently didn't read the letter Elizabeth Warren recently sent to its chief calling for marijuana legalization as a means of dealing with the problem of opiate overdose."

Cal NORML regularly hears from patients who are terminated from pain management medications because of their use of medical marijuana," according to the group.

"We applaud the CDC's reasoned approach to the use of urine testing and its drawbacks when used on pain patients," said Ellen Komp, deputy director of California NORML. "Considering that opioid overdose deaths are significantly lower in states with medical marijuana programs, we are sorry the agency apparently didn't read the letter Elizabeth Warren recently sent to its chief calling for marijuana legalization as a means of dealing with the problem of opiate overdose."

"It is prudent for clinicians to restrict use of any medical test to situations when results of the test would be helpful in decisions about patient management," said CDC spokesperson Courtney Lenard. "This is particularly important when testing or test results might have unintended negative consequences for patients.

"Some experts noted that in some cases, positive THC results might have legal or other consequences for patients but might not inform patient care decisions," Lenard said. "While CDC is not stating that urine tests for THC should never be used, the guideline recommends that clinicians should only test for substances (including THC) if the clinician knows how he or she would use the results to inform patient management."

- See more at: http://crrh.org/news/node/7055#sthash.vuwxeE3y.duzOnYYy.dpuf