Practicing medicine without a license is illegal. Yet cannabis dispensaries are doing it. 0 Shares Yesterday was a clinic day. In the middle of the morning, I met with a medical cannabis patient treated for anxiety. As we reviewed his current symptoms, medications, and how he is benefitting from his cannabis treatment, he mentioned an experience he found very upsetting. When he went to pick up his medicine at a cannabis dispensary, this patient told me that he overheard a bud-tender giving medical advice to a cancer patient. This is akin to the checkout clerk at CVS giving medical advice to a patient. Instead, such advice should be given by a physician and reiterated, or expounded upon, by a pharmacist – both of whom have had many years of training, testing, and credentialing. And both of whose professional activities are overseen by governing boards that hold them and their practices to the highest standards. My patient was appalled that this clerk was allowed to dispense medical advice and was adamant that this should not be the case. I could not agree more.