Purpose: Plants belonging to the genus Cannabis have been domesticated and used by humans for millennia. Thought to have originated from central Asia, cannabis has been harnessed for its nutritional, therapeutic, and psychoactive properties, and as a source of fiber (Office of Medicinal Cannabis. Analytical Monograph Cannabis Flos. Den Haag, The Netherlands: Office of Medicinal Cannabis; 2014). Human use of cannabis is not novel; however, its medicalization offers a new pharmacotherapeutic frontier.
Methods: The authors recently reported a systematic review of the contaminants of cannabis (National Academies of Sciences Engineering, and Medicine. The health effects of cannabis and cannabinoids: the current state of evidence and recommendations for research. Washington, DC; 2017). This article draws on the research limitations identified by that review and examines a collection of the relevant literature to provide an appreciation of the current evidence base.
Results: The review explores the current status of cannabis in medical use, the drug development aspects that apply when taking a plant through to pill development, and the roles that therapeutic drug monitoring and pharmacovigilance have to guide practice until the drug development information on medicinal cannabis preparations is complete.
Conclusions: A surge of public and clinical interest in the possible therapeutic applications of constituent cannabinoids has potentiated global legislative and policy reform. However, our understanding of its properties, optimized use, and harmful effects remains incomplete (Therapeutic Goods Administration. Guidance for the use of medicinal cannabis in Australia In: Department of Health Department, editor. Woden ACT Australian Government 2017; Dryburgh LM, Bolan NS, Grof CP, Galettis P, Schneider J, Lucas CJ, et al. Cannabis contaminants: sources, distribution, human toxicity and pharmacologic effects. Brit J Clin Pharm. 2018;84(11):2468-2476). In particular, a comprehensive appreciation of its toxicity profile is lacking.