A cross-sectional survey exploring the knowledge, experiences and attitudes of Australian pharmacists toward medicinal cannabis
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Saini, B
McCartney, D
Bedoya-Pérez, M
McLachlan, AJ
McGregor, IS
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Background: Australian pharmacists currently dispense a wide range of prescription-only cannabis-based medicines. Recent regulatory changes will expand the role of pharmacists, allowing certain low-dose cannabidiol products to be supplied without a prescription in pharmacies. This harmonises Australia with many other countries where cannabidiol products are readily available to consumers. Aim: To examine Australian pharmacists’ experience, knowledge and attitudes towards medicinal cannabis and their preparedness to supply over-the-counter low-dose cannabidiol products. Method: We conducted a cross-sectional study using a 51-item on-line questionnaire that was informed by previous surveys of health professionals and assessed for face validity. Australian pharmacists were recruited to complete the survey between May and December 2021, primarily through professional pharmacy organisations. Pharmacists were included in the final dataset if they completed the demographic characteristics section and at least one additional section of the questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive and relational statistical tests. Results: There were 272 attempts to complete this survey and 217 responses included in the final dataset. Over half of the respondents (60.0%, 130/217) had dispensed at least one medicinal cannabis prescription during their career and 58.5% (127/217) had received at least one medicinal cannabis enquiry in the last fortnight. Only around half (53.9%, 117/217) felt comfortable supplying medicinal cannabis products and fewer (39.3%, 79/201) were confident discussing cannabis-related enquiries. More than half of the respondents (58.7%, 118/201) supported the provision of low-dose cannabidiol products through pharmacies. Two-thirds (67.8%, 80/118) of respondents achieved relatively low scores (< 60%) in the knowledge component of the survey. Most respondents (94.2%, 178/189) endorsed a need for further training in this area. Conclusion: Australian pharmacists tended to support medicinal cannabis availability and improved access to low-dose cannabidiol products via pharmacies. However, results highlight a need for improved training and education of pharmacists around cannabis-based medicines.
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International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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45
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2
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© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
Cannabidiol (CBD)
Cannabinoid
Cannabis
Community pharmacy
Medicinal cannabis
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Bawa, Z; Saini, B; McCartney, D; Bedoya-Pérez, M; McLachlan, AJ; McGregor, IS, A cross-sectional survey exploring the knowledge, experiences and attitudes of Australian pharmacists toward medicinal cannabis, International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, 2023, 45 (2), pp. 375-386