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." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom