Pubdate: Fri, 26 Jul 2013
Source: Telegraph, The (Nashua, NH)
Copyright: 2013 Telegraph Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.nashuatelegraph.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/885
Author: Samantha Allen

Cannabis Care

HOSPICE AND HIV PROFESSIONALS EXPECT TO SEE LITTLE IMPACT FROM 
MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL

Editor's Note

New Hampshire is the 19th state to allow some form of medical 
marijuana. The Telegraph's six-day series, Cannabis Care, examines 
New Hampshire's therapeutic marijuana legislation and how the law 
will work, including who can get the drug, how much it will cost and 
what needs to happen before the first batch of marijuana is legally 
distributed in the state.

Though medical marijuana will soon be legal in the Granite State, 
health care professionals say it will have little to no impact on 
their day-to-day operations.

Whether treating patients in hospice care or those with HIV or AIDS, 
caregivers don't see marijuana becoming one of their go-to drugs.

Barbara Lafrante, a nurse and director of hospice and palliative care 
with Home Health & Hospice in Merrimack, said there are already 
medications on the market that offer the same benefits that marijuana 
is said to have.

Lafrante, who sits on the New Hampshire Hospice and Palliative Care 
Association, referenced "Marinol," a synthetic cannibanoid, which 
offers similar results. She said most health care professionals will 
turn to that medicine because it has been approved by the U.S. Food 
and Drug Administration.

"We have a lot of medications currently, you know, that we use to 
provide management for our patients," Lafrante said. "Our patients 
are well-palliated when we use Marinol, an FDA-approved form. And we 
rarely need that."

In an institution where Lafrante said she sees about 80 to 100 
patients each week with six months or less to live, Home Health & 
Hospice's promise is to eliminate the pain with 48 hours.

"Comfort is the priority," she said.

Wendy LeBlanc, vice president of the Southern New Hampshire HIV/AIDS 
Task Force based in Nashua, said this bill will have minimal impact 
on people she works with, as well. Using marijuana to combat the 
debilitating effects of AIDS is less common than it once was, LeBlanc 
said. And thanks to new drugs and treatments, many HIV and AIDS 
patients don't get as sick as they once did and some of the medicines 
used to treat the disease don't come with the same side-effects, like 
nausea, she added.

"It was much more widely known and accepted because people didn't 
have an appetite and it certainly helped," she said. "Traditional 
medical treatments have improved for people living with HIV, 
especially for people diagnosed more recently."

Dr. Karen Baranowski, president and CEO of Home Health & Hospice said 
for her, the decision to prescribe patients marijuana is up to their 
doctors, but she didn't see that becoming a large resource for them 
in the near future.

"If it's appropriate for the patient, they will use the FDA Marinol 
more frequently, I would imagine," she said.

People who do rely on the drug often loathe to talk about it, LeBlanc 
pointed out. The conversation is even limited among doctors and 
clinical workers. LeBlanc said she knows of just two people who 
acknowledge using marijuana to help combat their symptoms.

"People aren't as open about it as you might like them to be," she said.

Staff writer Joseph G. Cote contributed to this report.
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