Pubdate: Sun, 19 May 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. 'CORRECTING' POT LAW There was a moment of truth following the recent adoption of new medical marijuana regulations when Heidi Heilman of the Massachusetts Prevention Alliance said, "The Department of Public Health tried their best, but they can't rewrite the statute." This hideously flawed piece of legislation, which gives the marijuana industry a major toehold in the state, will surely come back to haunt us if the Legislature refuses to give it a second look. For example, the Massachusetts Medical Society still isn't pleased with the definition of the doctor-patient relationship outlined in the new regs. Their aim is to prevent some doc-for-hire attached to a marijuana dispensary from handing out "prescriptions" for a fee. It's not at all clear these regs will prevent that. Physicians from Children's Hospital also voiced objections to regs which will allow the dispensing of marijuana to those under the age of 18, not merely for use by the terminally ill or those with life threatening diseases, but those with "debilitating" medical conditions. Those who actually treat children know there is scant evidence of how marijuana impacts developing brains or at what level it could prove toxic. And that raises yet another issue which DPH attempted to deal with - the availability of marijuana in non-smokable forms and how to safeguard children from those. Three-year-olds don't really know the difference between a regular lollipop and a marijuanalaced one or between a regular brownie and the Alice B. Toklas variety. The DPH rules would require all of those products to be in child-proof packaging. However, there's a lot of evidence that such products are an accident waiting to happen. Colorado, which implemented a medical marijuana law several years ago, has experienced an uptick in emergency room admissions by children who inadvertently got into the household stash. Lawmakers are already taking a more careful look at the voter-passed bill. Now is the time to make drastically needed changes - before the state heads down this very thorny path. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom