HEALTH
FEATURE ARTICLE
CANNABIS FOR HEALING
From Cardiac Surgeon to
“Cannabis Doctor”
Dr. Sanjeev Sharma talks to Miriam Knight
In the current climate of the state of mari-
juana legalization, what prompted you as a
medical doctor to really put yourself on the
line and explore the use of cannabis in your
practice?
W
ell as a surgeon, I’ve always been
an advocate for the use of medical
cannabis in my elderly patients.
Usually after a major operation,
most patients will lose anywhere from 25 to 30
pounds, just because they lose a sense of smell
and taste for about six to eight weeks. I always
have thought that cannabis would be a great way
for elderly patients to use medication to treat
pain, as well as to prevent weight loss, but after 10
years of practice as a cardiac surgeon, medicine
has changed quite a bit. Bureaucracy now deter-
mines whom it’s appropriate or not appropriate
to operate on. Cardiac surgery is not removing a
toenail, you know. The best outcomes are really
in your sickest patients, but hospital administra-
tors are more interested in the profit margin at
the end of the quarter. Since I had always been an
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