Pubdate: Tue, 19 Feb 2013
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2013 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:  http://news.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Note: Prints only very short LTEs.
Authors: Christine Mcconville and Chris Cassidy

ANXIETY GROWS ON POT LAW

Medical Officials Demand Marijuana Regulations

Kids taking pot on a doctor's advice, stoned drivers causing roadway 
fatalities and deviant patients selling their weed for profit are 
just some of the worst-case scenarios that could spell disaster for 
the Bay State thanks to the vague new medicinal marijuana law, two 
top health groups are warning state officials.

"This is an 800-pound gorilla," Richard Aghababian, president of the 
Massachusetts Medical Society, told the Herald yesterday. "We don't 
want to do any harm to our patients. But what if someone drives a car 
on marijuana, gets into an accident and kills people? That just 
multiplies the harm you've done to people."

Both the medical society and the Massachusetts Public Health 
Association have asked state officials to more clearly define which 
type of doctors may recommend medicinal marijuana and precisely how 
much of the substance patients can receive.

The medical society also urged the state to provide clear guidelines 
on which agency will oversee the state's 35 pot dispensaries, whether 
marijuana should be recommended to patients under 18, and whether it 
can be sold in teas, cookies and cakes. It also wants pot-prescribing 
doctors to be board licensed and undergo substance-abuse training.

"It's the lack of information that we're concerned about," said Toby 
Fisher, executive director of the public health workers group. 
"Without clear and strict guidelines, there's the risk that these 
medicines could reach minors and illegal users."

Fisher's group wants the new rules written to keep medicinal weed 
away from children and addicts.

Adding to doctors' anxiety, clinical studies are not conclusive 
enough to determine how pot interacts with other prescription drugs 
or its long-term effects - something Aghababian equated to the 
terrifying thalidomide birth-defects scare of the 1950s.

"If we're going to call this a medical form of therapy, we have to 
apply the same rigorous criteria used for new seizure medicine, 
something for HIV, something for a heart attack," Aghababian said. 
"We could inadvertently do harm. There are so many vagaries that some 
day, even working in the best interest of the patients, you're going 
to have an adverse outcome."

Aghababian also worried about patients crossing state borders to 
collect multiple pot permission slips. "What if they use it and 
resell it?" he asked.

The state's Department of Public Health is holding three public 
hearings as it prepares to craft rules by May to implement the 
controversial, voter-approved medicinal marijuana plan.

DPH Interim Commissioner Lauren Smith said: "We have every intention 
to take the proper care, take the proper balance and make sure to 
keep the health of the patients, as well as the well-being of the 
commonwealth in mind."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom