Current state of knowledge on medical cannabis use and risk for infections: A practical guide for clinicians.
\n Patients and clinicians broadly support medical cannabis, but acknowledge limited understanding of products, efficacy, and safety. Here, we review cannabis products, regulatory issues, microbial contamination of cannabis, and infections linked to cannabis. In the U.S., cannabis is regulated by a...
| Publicado en: | Clinical Infectious Diseases pp. 1 - 21 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Oxford University Press / USA
May2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=197164938&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 197164938 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 10584838 46X jtl: Clinical Infectious Diseases issn: 10584838 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: May2026 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 197164938 10.1093/cid/ciag343 197164938 ppf: 1 ppct: 20 formats: tig: atl: Current state of knowledge on medical cannabis use and risk for infections: A practical guide for clinicians. aug: au: Hughes Kramer, Kailey Garner, Will Clancy, Cornelius J Nguyen, M Hong sug: ab: \n Patients and clinicians broadly support medical cannabis, but acknowledge limited understanding of products, efficacy, and safety. Here, we review cannabis products, regulatory issues, microbial contamination of cannabis, and infections linked to cannabis. In the U.S., cannabis is regulated by a patchwork of federal and state laws. Three pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoids are U.S. FDA-approved, and non-FDA-approved medical cannabis products are legal in 40 states. There are no uniform standards for testing products for microbes or validated safety thresholds from state-to-state. Reports of cannabis-associated fungal and bacterial infections have been published. However, only a single case report used genome sequencing to conclusively link a disease-causing fungus (<italic>Cryptococcus neoformans</italic>) to cannabis consumed by the patient. Therefore, infections can clearly complicate cannabis use, but extent of risk and specific risk factors are unknown. There is urgent need for harmonized cannabis regulation, standardized product testing and safety criteria, and clinical and translational research on infectious risks.Lay SummaryCannabis is an increasingly popular treatment option for a variety of medical conditions. Clinicians and patients broadly support medical cannabis, but they acknowledge poor understanding of various products, the legal status of cannabis in different locations, and adverse effects associated with use. Cannabis and medical cannabis products are known to carry fungi and bacteria that are capable of causing infections. Case reports of infections ascribed to cannabis have been published over the past five decades, but the strength of evidence implicating cannabis and the level of risk posed by its use are unclear. To date, there has been no in-depth review of cannabis-associated infections, the strength of evidence linking infections to specific organisms within cannabis, or patients who might be most at-risk for such infections. In this paper, we briefly discuss medical cannabis and cannabis products, their legal status, and indications for use. Then, we review in detail microbial contamination of cannabis, product testing, and infections linked to cannabis. We conclude by making recommendations for clinicians who are addressing cannabis use in their patients and the potential for infections, discussing unmet needs, and offering calls to action for healthcare workers and policymakers. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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