Pubdate: Sun, 26 Jan 2014
Source: Metrowest Daily News (MA)
Copyright: 2014 MetroWest Daily News
Contact:  http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/619
Author: Jill Griffin
Note: Jill Griffin, M.D., practices in Northampton.

THE MEDICINE IN MARIJUANA

Last winter I made a house call to the home of a frail,90-year-old
woman who had been suffering from severe pain for so long she wasready
to throw in the towel. She asked for medical marijuana. I
declined,refilled her narcotic prescription and left.

When I checked on her two days later she looked and feltsignificantly
better. What was different? She had begun using marijuana. And sobegan
my education in the medicinal uses of cannabis.

A year has passed and I now have nearly a thousand patientsin my
practice who are benefiting from the regular use of medical marijuana.
Mypatients use cannabis in a variety of forms. The ones who can't
swallow take itas a tincture - absorbed under the tongue. Arthritic
patients apply cannabissalve directly to their painful joints. Some
patients inhale the smokelessvapor of the plant, others take it in
food or as a highly concentrated oil.

Some of my patients simply take the fresh leaves of theplant, toss
them in a blender and make smoothies rich in healthy cannabinoidsthat
can't get you high.

Cannabis that can't get you high and you don't have to
smokeit?

Correct. Out of necessity, patients have devised numerousways to
safely take their medicine. And speaking of safety - medicinal
cannabisis the safest medication I have ever recommended.

In over 2,000 individual patient encounters I have hadexactly two
reports of adverse reactions to the medicine. Both were in patientsnew
to cannabis who experienced the typical anxiety/paranoia reaction that
iswell described in the literature, lasts for a short period and has
no knownlong-term adverse effects.

I had never really considered the safety profile of cannabisuntil this
year, but thinking back on my career as an ER doctor, I never caredfor
anyone with a marijuana-related emergency. When I compare that with
thenumber of people I have pronounced dead due to the legal
consumption of alcoholor narcotics, it is clear cannabis is a safer
medicine.

Cannabis may be the safer medical choice for some patients,but legal
issues remain. I am not speaking of federal versus states'
rights,I'm talking about patients in our community who have had
their medication takenaway by members of law enforcement.

When I inquire and try to determine the cause of the problem,the
answers I receive range from an apology and the return of medication
tooutright anger. One official told me that my patient was not using
medicine butan illegal drug and that their department was going to
"rip up every plantthey could find."

I recently went to court for a patient and, based on theprosecutor's
behavior it appears that once she realized that my patient
wasprotected under the law, she switched to a tactic that has been
used in otherstates to scare physicians away from writing
recommendations for medicalcannabis - she attempted to discredit me.

When other physicians hear about the legal issues thatcolleagues and
patients are faced with, it is not surprising that they vote infavor
of the medicine but shy away from writing the recommendation.

Some physicians even prefer to avoid consulting on sharedpatients who
use medical marijuana, out of fear of legal reprisal. These fearsare
so widespread that it has become a standard of care to not consult
with acannabis patient's primary care provider.

This, quite frankly, is a bad standard and inferior medicine,but for
now it is the best we have.

One way to change this standard would be for physicianpractices to let
patients know if they are cannabis friendly. The other optionis for
patients to "come out" to their provider.

Based on data collected in my practice, this is unlikely.Over 90
percent of my patients request that I not contact their treatment
teamout of fear of rejection.

Over the next year, as we see dispensaries opening and peoplebecoming
more comfortable with the concept of cannabis as medicine, it is
myhope that the issues of 2013 become a thing of the past and my
patients areable to use their medicine in peace.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D