AMA Delegates Act on Opioid Epidemic, Widening Legalization of Cannabis

AMA Board of Trustees Report titled “Enabling Methadone Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder in Primary Care Settings.” The report calls for further research on how primary care physicians can incorporate medication treatment for addiction into their practices and asks the AMA Opioid Task Force to increase its evidence-based educational resources focused on methadone maintenance therapy and publicize those findings.

AMA Board of Trustees Report titled “Opioid Mitigation.” The report calls for evaluation of outcomes and best practices by grantees of awards from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for the creation of local strategies to address the opioid epidemic. The report expands policy to include encouraging drug courts to use evidence-based models of care for those who the court determines would benefit from intervention rather than incarceration. It also urges state and federal policymakers to enforce applicable mental health/substance use parity laws.

Resolution on Support for Veterans Courts. This resolution supports use of veterans courts as an intervention for veterans who commit criminal offenses that may be related to a neurological or psychiatric disorder.

Council on Medical Education Report titled “Board Certification Changes Impact Access to Addiction Medicine Specialists.” The AMA recognizes the American Board of Preventive Medicine, as well as the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) and the AOA Bureau of Osteopathic Specialists, for developing and providing pathways for physicians to obtain certification in the subspecialty of addiction medicine, in order to improve access to care for patients with substance use disorders.

Resolution on Expediting Entry of Qualified IMG Physicians to U.S. Medical Practice. This resolution asks the AMA to study and make recommendations for the best means of expediting the evaluation and credentialing of competently trained international medical graduates into medical practice in the United States.

Resolution on Raising Awareness of the Public Health Impact of Cannabis. This resolution calls for the AMA to work with interested organizations to collate existing worldwide data on the public health and societal impacts and unintended consequences of legalization and/or decriminalization of cannabis for recreational and medicinal use; encourage research on the unintended consequences of legalization and decriminalization of cannabis; disseminate information on the public health impacts of legalization and decriminalization of cannabis, including possibly making links to that information available on the AMA website; and work with interested organizations to lobby Congress to allow more sites to conduct research on the risks and benefits of cannabinoid products.

Resolution on Gun Violence and Mental Illness Stigma in the Media. This resolution encourages the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in collaboration with other public and private organizations, to develop recommendations and/or best practices for media coverage of mass shootings. This would include informed discussion of the limited data on the relationship between mental illness and gun violence and recognition of the potential for exacerbating stigma against individuals with mental illness.

Resolution on Ban on Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) Products. This resolution calls for the AMA to advocate for regulatory, legislative, and/or legal action at the federal and/or state levels to ban the sale and distribution of all e-cigarette and vaping products, with the exception of those that may be approved by the FDA for tobacco cessation purposes and made available by prescription only. The resolution also calls for the AMA to advocate for research funding to sufficiently study the safety and effectiveness of e-cigarette and vaping products for tobacco cessation purposes. ■