So-called patients are hijacking medical marijuana

[toymachines]

I am all for straight up legalization, but an interesting article none-the-less. There's a good commentary going down on the site.

So-called patients are hijacking medical marijuana
By Beth Barber, SDNN

After 25 years of lower back pain, Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez finally decided to take obvious step No. 1: get a physician’s recommendation for medical marijuana. Last week he took obvious step No. 2: write a column about it in the Times.

Lopez got his recommendation from a physician who advertised “superior professionalism” yet never laid a hand on Lopez. He identified himself as a gynecologist who knows nothing about back pain. He nevertheless charged $150 for no good and valuable service except certifying in writing that “Steve Lopez was evaluated in my office for a medical condition, which in my professional opinion, may benefit from the use of medical marijuana.”

What more do you need to know? The unscrupulous have hijacked the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, California’s medical marijuana law.

Hundreds of physicians run this scam thousands of times a day. Los Angeles alone counts 186 “medical marijuana dispensaries” that have city permits and some 600 more that don’t. Recreational pot users vastly outnumber patients with cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, anorexia, arthritis, migraine or “any chronic or persistent medical symptom that substantially limits a person’s ability to conduct one or more of major life activities as defined in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.”

Profits from dispensaries can run in the hundreds of thousands. And no way is all that weed from legal sources: The eight ounces of dried marijuana, six mature plants or 12 immature plants allowed qualified patients and primary caregivers who have a state-issued I.D. card. Or the greater amount when it is “consistent with the patient’s needs” as certified by his doctor’s recommendation or when local ordinances allow it... Read more

http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-11-04/politics-city-county-government/politics-opinion/so-called-patients-are-hijacking-medical-marijuana#ixzz0VwDhjqru

[Why Syzygy]

1. So what.

The anti drug laws are criminal de facto. Many people living in non legal states would gladly pay $150 for a legal method to grow/purchase. I just don't care if people take advantage of a screwed up system.

[endless october]

2. legalize now.

problem solved.

[mcollins]

12. Legalize now and have Uncle Sam

take his pound of flesh. The government will just tax it like they do tobacco and booze. We'll see the 2011 version of moonshiners running a load of stash in a sup'd up chevey!

[tekisui]

3. So.

Anyone who uses it for any reason should have that right. Most use it for anxiety or depression, and may not even know it. If someone wants it, they should get it. The reasons to diagnosis are more benign than the pharmaceutical industry inventing syndromes to treat.

[PeaceNikki]

4. psssst

it's a renewable resource.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. smoking marijuana is a smelly, filthy & disgusting, however, people

love it & nothing is going to stop people from getting their hands on it no matter how it's regulated.

[msongs]

6. makes good tea and of course, brownies - no nasty smoking required....

or so I've hear from other sources :-)

Msongs

[Mike K]

16. And carrot cake.

The problem is producing the oil ("pot butter") needed to bake with marijuana calls for reducing a lot of good bud to its essential oil, which is expensive considering the cost of bootleg product. If this were not so there would be a lot less smoking and a lot more baking, because the effect of a good pot brownie is a much more pleasant than that of inhaling the smoke from a joint or a bong -- and it lasts quite a bit longer.

I've been reading and hearing a lot about the use of "vaporizers" but I know nothing about them.

[Mike K]

14. While the smell of burning marijuana -

- might be offensive to some non-smokers it certainly isn't nearly as bad as the smell of burning tobacco. In fact I would compare it qualitatively to the smell of burning leaves in the fall. I suspect your extreme distaste for it ("filthy and disgusting") must derive from association with some other unpleasant experience or memories because I've never heard it described as such before.

I smoked cigarettes for thirty-five years and quit in 1985. Today I can't stand the smell of them and would describe the odor as disgusting. But although I haven't smoked any marijuana since the early 1980s I have smelled it within the past year and don't find it offensive at all.

And you are quite right about people wanting to use it regardless of regulations -- because there is no practical reason why they shouldn't. It isn't harmful in any way and it produces a very pleasurable, tranquil experience.

[bamacrat]

7. Smoking weed beats the hell out of smoking cigarettes.

The taste the smell, oh how I miss it. I would gladly pay $150 to be able to smoke/grow. I have a cracked bone in my low back that hurts very bad at times too so I could get a permit if I lived in an intelligent state.

[mcollins]

13. Amen, brother. /NT

[JonLP24]

8. Steve Lopez is the journalist inspired for the film The Soloist

Nonetheless I'd like to read his column on this. I don't know the source of the facts about 'thousands' of licensed physicians running a scam so I find it hard to believe. He is used as an example to jump to conclusions about thousands of patients. In the end I don't care at all but I wonder if this column is honest.

[metalbot]

10. There is no shortage of doctors in the US who will write a script for anything

Want anabolic steroids? I can assure you that with very little work, you can find a doctor to write you a script for far higher than "hormone replacement therapy" dosages. Want pain drugs? You can find a doctor to prescribe strong narcotics. They won't be doctors on your insurance plan, they won't be working out of reputable hospitals or clinics, they'll be expensive, and they might be out of state, but they clearly exist.

It's not that it's a scam, it's more a doctor who has basically decided to check out and make money in their old age.

If I still smoked marijuana and lived in a medicinal state, I'd definitely go get a doctor's note, and there's nothing wrong with me that requires cannabis. I'm sure I'm not alone. It wouldn't make any sense NOT to do that, given the defense from prosecution that it provides you.

[Mike K]

11. Lopez is obviously one of a breed of hack journalists -

- who rely on such tabloid level exploitation for survival in the trade.

There are some sources of back pain which are virtually impossible to diagnose by any means other than a patient's description, which is what Lopez provided.

[Lefty48197]

9. I don't think this doctor is the 'quack' the article tries to make out of him

The doctor can evaluate a condition diagnosed by another doctor and offer an opinion as to whether marijuana can help with that condition. He doesn't have to meet the patient to verify that condition.

[Mike K]

15. There are many medical conditions which produce -

- extreme pain the causes of which are neurological in origin and are undetectable by any existing method of testing. Some doctors will not take a patient's word that he is in pain if there is no way to clinically confirm it. But there are many doctors who will take a patient's word for it rather than risk failing to treat a legitimate condition because of his inability to confirm its existence or origin.

No competent physician will assert that the existence of any source of pain is clinically detectable.