By Hugo Elliot
Bias is implicit in everything human beings do. No one is capable of 100% objectivity all the time. Not even doctors and nurses. Even the medical professionals we trust to give us the best possible advice for maintaining optimal health are subject to bias. The question among patients is how much that bias impacts their own health and wellbeing.
Medical bias can significantly impact the recommendation and treatment decisions coming from nurses and doctors. Bias can impact diagnosis, quality of care, and even the quality of care among different patients. It can even affect what some medical providers think about a particular treatment – even to the extent of causing them to reject it. Medical cannabis is a prime example.
50 Years of Controversy
Cannabis has been the subject of more than 50 years of controversy ever since it was added to the federal government’s Schedule I list of controlled substances. Prior to the 1970s however, cannabis was legal in all forms. So what changed?
For several decades leading up to the Schedule I decision, there was a concerted effort to make the American public aware of marijuana’s capabilities as an intoxicating substance. Marijuana was linked to crimes, addiction, and other sorts of antisocial behavior. There were eventually enough politicians and bureaucrats on board to get marijuana banned.
Fast forward to 2024 and many of those old beliefs about marijuana persist, even among medical professionals. Some providers just do not see enough benefit from medical cannabis to override what they believe are marijuana’s risks. For whatever reason, they cannot look at medical cannabis through the same eyes through which they look at prescription opioids.
Three Types of Bias
Medical providers are affected by three kinds of bias: implicit, explicit, and cognitive. Implicit bias is unconscious. It is a bias that can impact actions, decisions, and understandings without a person being aware. Thus, went implicit bias leads to core decisions or actions, medical providers are not doing what they do intentionally.
Explicit bias is the result of conscious decisions made by healthcare providers. It is the result of ideas a doctor or nurse consciously applies to clinical interactions. Likewise, cognitive bias is intentional. But it is related to external influences. For example, a doctor might refuse to recommend medical cannabis because he is afraid of losing his malpractice insurance.
Failing to Acknowledge Its Benefits
The net effect of medical bias on cannabis is really a failure to acknowledge its medicinal benefits. For a variety of reasons, a certain segment of the healthcare community is unwilling to consider the fact that medical cannabis can be an effective treatment for conditions like chronic pain and PTSD.
Zion Medicinal, a Cedar City, Utah medical cannabis dispensary that also serves St. George, says there are now more than 80,000 medical cannabis users in the Beehive State. Tens of thousands use cannabis for PTSD and pain.
These are patients for whom the best evidence in favor of medical cannabis is their own experience. They are people who have tried traditional treatments without success. Fortunately, they have all found medical providers willing to recommend cannabis for them. But how many others are still not benefiting from cannabis due to medical bias from their healthcare providers?
They Are Human Too
No of this is meant to disparage doctors or nurses. They make life altering decisions on a daily basis. They need to make those decisions based on an overwhelmingly large body of knowledge. But like the rest of us, bias does impact their thoughts, beliefs, and actions.
