Pubdate: Fri, 01 Aug 2014
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2014 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Authors: Hoover Adger, Maria Trent, Krishna Upadhya
Page: 16
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n617/a05.html

PHYSICIANS NEED MEDICAL MARIJUANA TRAINING

A recent article raised a number of questions about medical marijuana
in Maryland and the risk its use poses to public trust in the medical
community ("Medical pot rules raise concern," July 26).

As health care providers for this city's children, adolescents and
young adults, we witness the harmful effects of chronic marijuana use
on health and development in our practice every day. We are thus
skeptical of Del. Dan K. Morhaim's assertion that the requirement for
continuing medical education for physicians prescribing medical
marijuana in Maryland is too burdensome.

This requirement is not a burden but rather a way to ensure that
practicing doctors keep up to date on medical evidence. All Maryland
physicians are required to complete 50 continuing medical education
credits each time they renew their license. The problems Delegate
Morhaim cites with designing CME for medical marijuana highlight that
it is not actually a standard treatment for any medical condition.

If marijuana were like any other medication available to the most
vulnerable patients (for example, cancer and AIDS patients)
evidence-based CME programs for doctors would be the norm. The fact
that proponents of medical marijuana say that the bar should be
lowered for this drug suggests what we have long suspected: That
medical marijuana legislation is an attempt to use doctors to
legitimize and normalize drug use as a step toward legalization.

Hoover Adger, Maria Trent, Krishna Upadhya, Baltimore The writers are
on the faculty of the Department of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt