Pubdate: Tue, 08 Oct 2013
Source: Register Citizen (CT)
Copyright: 2013 Register Citizen
Contact:  http://www.registercitizen.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/598
Author: Hugh McQuaid

SOME CAN'T FIND DOCTORS WHO WILL RECOMMEND POT

More than 1,100 Connecticut residents have now registered to use 
medical marijuana, but others have had difficulty finding a doctor 
participating in the program.

The state's law allowing the palliative use of marijuana permits 
people with certain debilitating illnesses to get a recommendation 
from a doctor if they wish to register with the state to use the substance.

As of Monday, 1,118 people had registered with the Department of 
Consumer Protection to use medical marijuana.

However, only a small percentage of the state's physicians, around 
100, have signed up with the department to write the patient 
recommendations. Meanwhile, the medical marijuana law includes a 
provision which exempts the names of those doctors from disclosure 
under the Freedom of Information Act.

That means there is no way for patients seeking to participate in the 
program to locate a doctor willing to consider writing a 
recommendation unless that doctor has chosen to publicize his or her 
willingness to prescribe it.

Lorie Kemmling, a 54-yearold Berlin resident who suffers from post 
traumatic stress syndrome, said she has been trying to locate a 
doctor participating in the program since the law went into effect 
about a year ago. So far, she has not been successful.

Kemmling said she asked her own doctor, who told her to direct her 
inquiries to the state. When she tried that, she said the man she 
spoke to suggested she search for doctors on Google. Although she 
found a couple medical practices on a website aggregating doctors who 
prescribe the drug, she said she has been unable to get an appointment.

Short of leafing through a phone book and calling doctors offices to 
ask if they prescribe marijuana, Kemmling said she does not see any options.

"I'd love to know how people find this information. I'm at the end of 
my rope, pulling my hair out, trying to help myself. I don't know 
what to do anymore," she said.

Kemmling, who said she experiences panic attacks, nightmares, and 
pain, would like to try using medical marijuana to replace some the 
other medications she is currently on. She said marijuana seemed like 
a natural alternative to some of her current meds, which said were addictive.

"I want to get off all these addictive meds," she said. "I don't want 
to be on all this garbage. I'd rather be on something natural."

She questioned why the state could not direct her to a participating doctor.

Claudette Carveth, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Protection 
Department, said the agency's disclosure policy with regard to 
medical marijuana was in line with its policies pertaining to the 
other drugs it regulates.

"Similar to our treatment of all other medications that fall under 
the purview of the Department's Drug Control Division, we are not in 
the practice of providing information on how to find a doctor that 
will approve a specific drug for a specific medical condition," 
Carveth wrote in an email.

Ken Ferrucci, the Connecticut State Medical Society's vice president 
for public policy and governmental affairs, said the doctors 
association has not had an internal discussion over whether the names 
of doctors participating should be released. But he said there are 
good reasons why some of those docs would not want that information publicized.

Doctors may have signed up for the program because they were willing 
to recommend marijuana for one or two of their longtime patients. But 
their practices are not set up to meet the demand of an influx of new 
patients seeking marijuana recommendations, he said.

The hundred or so physicians who have opted to participate in the 
program make up a fraction of the between 6,000 and 7,000 medical 
doctors, which Ferrucci estimated are practicing in the Connecticut.

Although he noted that some of those doctors are working in fields 
where marijuana prescriptions wouldn't make sense-say pediatrics-said 
many of the state's physicians are hesitant to recommend a drug that 
does not have much in the way of scientific study.

He said he expects the percentage of doctors participating will be 
low, at least at the beginning.

"We're in a huge gray area here," he said. "... This is the beginning 
of what I think you could potentially consider an experiment."

Ferrucci said patients who believe marijuana will help them should 
engage in a discussion with their doctors, even if that doctor is not 
participating in the program. In some cases that doctor may direct 
the patient elsewhere or talk about why they will not prescribe 
marijuana. Either way, he said most doctors are willing to have an 
open and honest dialogue with their patients.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom