Pubdate: Wed, 20 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.

PUBLIC HEALTH DISASTER

Doctors - real doctors, the ones who actually are concerned about the 
welfare of their patients - have now raised some equally real 
concerns about the state's soonto-be implemented law on so-called 
"medical" marijuana.

The head of the Massachusetts Medical Society, Richard Aghababian, 
raised all the right issues as he pleaded with state officials to 
think about the consequences of the ballot-approved measure which put 
Massachusetts on that slippery slope to de facto legalization with 
the approval of 35 pot shops.

It's Aghababian's 24,000 members who will be caught in the middle. 
Meanwhile out-of-state pot purveyors are already planning to expand 
their operations here, presumably bringing some of their own, shall 
we say, like-minded physicians ready to write a "recommendation" for 
the weed - that is, for a price.

The medical society wants those docs at the very least to be board 
licensed and to undergo substance abuse training.

But Aghababian notes, there are no clinical studies on how pot 
interacts with other drugs.

"If we're going to call this a medical form of therapy," Aghababian 
told the Herald, "we have to apply the same rigorous criteria used 
for new seizure medicine, something for HIV, something for a heart 
attack. We could inadvertently do harm."

There are no dosage limits or information, he adds. Is the 
"therapeutic" dose for a 115-pound woman with glaucoma the same as 
for a 170-pound man with HIV?

Similarly the Massachusetts Public Health Association has raised a 
host of other issues, including the minimum age of patients and 
whether the weed could be sold in teas or in cookies, cakes - which 
would make it that much more attractive to teens.

"Without clear and strict guidelines, there's the risk that these 
medicines could reach minors and illegal users," said Toby Fisher, 
executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association. 
Gosh, you think? So a law that was always destined to become a law 
enforcement nightmare now threatens to become a public health 
nightmare as well. But hey, the voters must know best.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom