|A survey by the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that only about 30% of oncologists felt adequately informed to recommend cannabis. This should not be surprising since cannabis is not included in the curriculums at medical schools. There is simply too little clinical research into the medical benefits of the plant and anecdotal evidence is not enough. Yet, while most doctors will admit they do not know much about cannabis and how it may affect their patients, a greater number are prescribing it.|
Hype, not science, is driving demand for medical cannabis. Since science does not tell us much about the therapeutic effects of cannabis, the common practice for treatment follows a start low, go slow protocol. Some doctors even claim that cannabis is a perfect placebo. Maybe they are correct. One technology which may help decipher the medical cannabis enigma is Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. The promise of finding a correlation between the unique spectral fingerprint of a cannabis variety, which is an accurate representation of the plant’s composition captured by a NIR spectrometer , and treatment efficacy for a specific health indication may validate actual therapeutic benefits of medical cannabis.