Closing the Growing Medical Cannabis Education Gap
As of 2021, there were over 3.6 million registered cannabis patients in the US.
And, as reported by scientific reviews, there is a growing gap between public interest in medical cannabis and the lack of qualified practitioners offering guidance.
There are a lot of medical cannabis patients in the US seeking reputable information on safe usage, which is why partnering with a medical association is a helpful move for not just the industry, but more importantly, the patients.
My company, Weedgets, recently announced a partnership with the American Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA). If you’re not familiar with the ACNA, they are a non-profit organization with a mission to advance excellence in cannabis nursing practice through advocacy, collaboration, education, research, and policy development.
“The American Cannabis Nurses Association has a mission to advance excellence in cannabis nursing practice through advocacy, collaboration, education, research, and policy development,” says Nicole Foss, President of ACNA.
Foss added, “By partnering with cannabis industry businesses who focus on patient-centered approaches to product development and safety, we are using our important voice to highlight products that have a positive impact in the space.”
Foss went on to state that partnerships like this help bring more awareness to the key role that cannabis nurses play in medicine.
“Building the bridge between the cannabis industry and healthcare has been a focus of ACNA for the last year,” explains Foss. “The model of connecting healthcare providers and patient’s voices in product development is key to medical device development within other areas of medicine, and we see this as a key step to build that model in cannabis medicine.”
The idea to partner with ACNA was intentional and targeted because of the first-hand relationship their members have with patients. While there is a growing number of organizations who can assist patients with information on overall medical cannabis usage, there is a definite lack of education for patients regarding consumption hardware and devices. ACNA became the first US medical association to endorse a cannabis pipe, as part of this partnership announcement.
“Many of our nurse members interact with cannabis patients who choose to consume cannabis through smoking or inhalation. Based on clinical research, this is not the safest way to consume cannabis, but it is the most widely used method,” says Foss.
Prior to getting into the cannabis industry, I spent much of my career engineering life-saving devices, resulting in over 100 patents in the medical field. It was out of personal need that I pivoted to cannabis.
Unfortunately, my kids started smoking cannabis in high school. After realizing that prohibiting them would not work to deter their usage, I started designing smoke filtering and cooling accessories to reduce coughing by eliminating harsh smoke.
Having said that, I saw first-hand the need for safer consumption options and there was a natural crossover with my background in medicine.
Partnering with ACNA allows us to help uphold their commitment to their patients and allows us to help thousands of people who require direct smoke inhalation for their treatments. It also validates our achievements and commitment to bring much safer devices to medical and recreational users.
The significance of this partnership is echoed by Foss as well. She says that the ACNA is all about meeting medical patients where they are at in their cannabis journey and guiding them through their options. One of the key roles the ACNA plays is to help educate patients on safe administration choices.
Foss said, “Having a smoking device…that addresses some of the negative impacts related to inhalation of cannabis is one step in meeting the patient where they’re at to ensure a safer medical cannabis journey.”
The Maze-X pipe utilizes a patented cough-less technology, that reduces smoke temperature while removing hot resin and tar to protect lungs and throat while smoking. From a technical perspective, the smoke temperature is drastically reduced to 100-120F at the point of inhalation, compared to traditional pipes which have a smoke temperature of 250-300F.
The result is a cleaner, smoother and cooler smoke that will drastically reduce coughing, making it gentle enough for even patients with asthma or COPD to use.
