Marijuana can be a great tool for many people who are dealing with physical and mental health concerns. However, not all doctors are happy to work with someone who’s currently using marijuana.
If you’re hoping to use medical marijuana, but you’re concerned about your doctor being on board, there are many options available. Here are four things you can do to make sure that you get a doctor who respects your decision to try medical marijuana.
1. Be Truthful About Your Usage Of Marijuana
It can be tempting just to hide that you use medical marijuana if you’re concerned about your doctor’s response to it. However, remember that if you’re not talking about your usage of marijuana, your doctor will be unable to help you with it.
The doctor doesn’t have a full picture of your health if you don’t tell them everything about how you’re managing it. Plus, most of the time, a doctor will be able to tell whether you use marijuana anyway, and lying to your doctor can negatively impact trust on both sides.
2. Bring Up Your Concerns About Your Doctor’s Opinions Early On
Your doctor deserves to know if you’re concerned about their opinion on your marijuana use. Hopefully, they shouldn’t get offended about your concern; after all, many doctors haven’t gotten up to date on the extensive potential benefits associated with marijuana, and may have a negative opinion of it even if it’s legal in your state.
3. Let Your Doctor Know What Your End Goal Is
Early on, you should let your doctor know what you’re hoping to end up with in your care. This also requires that you know what your end goal is. Are you hoping to eventually transition to using exclusively medical marijuana as your medication, or do you hope to use medical marijuana in conjunction with pharmaceutical medications? What do you want marijuana to help with? What would be a big enough dealbreaker that you would stop using marijuana altogether?
4. Be Firm With Your Boundaries
Even though your doctor has gone through a lot of training and education to learn more about the human body, that doesn’t mean that you have to agree with everything they say, especially if they condescend to you or don’t listen to you. If you want to try medical marijuana and your doctor treats you negatively for it, you always have the right to break ties with that doctor, no matter how long you’ve been with them.
Conclusion
There are more and more scientific studies coming out all the time about how medical marijuana may be a great tool for a number of different illnesses and conditions. If you’re interested in starting to use marijuana as a method of managing your own illness, it’s always important that your doctor is in on the plan as well. These four steps can help you find a doctor that’s respectful of your desires to try different medication options for your illness.
