The International Society of Cannabis Pharmacists (ISCPh) participated in the 2026 Cannabis Clinical Outcomes Research Conference (CCORC) in Orlando, Florida, highlighting the importance of pharmaceutical expertise in advancing medical cannabis quality, safety, and public health.
ISCPh President and Executive Director Dr. Melani Kane, PharmD, and co-founder Christine Roussel, PharmD, presented perspectives on the evolving role of pharmacists in cannabis care, connecting clinical pharmacy practice with medication-safety infrastructure, research, and regulatory considerations.
What Makes Cannabis Medical?
One of the central themes of the presentation was a fundamental question: What distinguishes medical cannabis care from general cannabis use?
Medical use involves more than the selection of a product for a particular symptom. It requires consideration of the patient’s medical conditions, treatment goals, concurrent medications, product characteristics, administration practices, therapeutic response, and potential adverse effects.
These are familiar responsibilities within clinical pharmacy practice.
Pharmacists can contribute through medication reconciliation, assessment of drug interactions, individualized dosing support, adverse-effect evaluation, patient counseling, and ongoing monitoring.
Defining the Pharmacist’s Role
ISCPh’s work includes developing professional recommendations that clarify where pharmacists can contribute across medical cannabis care, clinical research, medication management, and public health.
The conference presentation emphasized that pharmacist involvement should be understood as part of broader interdisciplinary care, rather than as a separate or competing clinical service.
Meaningful pharmacist participation also requires appropriate professional education, practical clinical workflows, and opportunities to evaluate the outcomes of pharmacy services.
Standardizing Medical Cannabis Medication Histories
Accurate medication histories are essential to safe medication management, yet collecting information about cannabis products presents unique challenges.
Patients may use multiple formulations, products with varying cannabinoid concentrations, unmarked measuring devices, or self-directed dosing regimens. Product labels may not reliably communicate the amount actually administered or absorbed.
ISCPh is developing a standardized medical cannabis medication-history framework to improve the collection and documentation of clinically relevant exposure information.
The proposed approach emphasizes product identity, cannabinoid composition when available, formulation, route, amount used, timing, frequency, and the source and certainty of the information collected.
More consistent documentation may improve medication reconciliation, safety assessment, and the interpretation of clinical research findings.
Evaluating Pharmacist Interventions Through CANN-PIC
Building on standardized medication documentation, ISCPh is developing the Cannabis Pharmacist Intervention Classification (CANN-PIC) research initiative.
The proposed prospective, multicenter observational study aims to characterize medication-related problems identified by pharmacists, the interventions performed, and associated implementation and clinical outcomes.
This research is intended to move beyond describing pharmacists’ potential responsibilities toward systematically evaluating what pharmacists actually do in medical cannabis care.
Integrating Cannabis Into Medication-Safety Systems
A key message from ISCPh’s CCORC presentation was that medical cannabis should be incorporated into established medication-safety infrastructure rather than treated as a separate clinical silo.
This includes opportunities to improve medication-history documentation, adverse-event monitoring, interdisciplinary communication, and the evaluation of medication-related outcomes.
As regulatory and healthcare frameworks continue to evolve, pharmacists can help bridge differences between cannabis product information, clinical care, and medication-safety expectations.
From Conference Discussions to Research Collaboration
CCORC provided an opportunity for ISCPh to engage with researchers, clinicians, and other stakeholders on the challenges and opportunities associated with advancing medical cannabis care.
Through ongoing work in professional guidance, standardized medication histories, pharmacist intervention research, and clinical education, ISCPh is working to establish a stronger foundation for evidence-based cannabis medication management.
Interested in collaborating with ISCPh?
We welcome healthcare professionals and researchers interested in contributing to initiatives that advance patient safety, clinical research, and the pharmacist’s role in medical cannabis care.