The General
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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 was ready 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 felt significantly better. What was different? She had begun using marijuana. And so began my education in the medicinal uses of cannabis.
A year has passed and I now have nearly a thousand patients in my practice who are benefiting from the regular use of medical marijuana. My patients use cannabis in a variety of forms. The ones who can't swallow take it as a tincture - absorbed under the tongue. Arthritic patients apply cannabis salve directly to their painful joints. Some patients inhale the smokeless vapor of the plant, others take it in food or as a highly concentrated oil. Some of my patients simply take the fresh leaves of the plant, toss them in a blender and make smoothies rich in healthy cannabinoids that can't get you high. Cannabis that can't get you high and you don't have to smoke it? Correct. Out of necessity, patients have devised numerous ways to safely take their medicine. And speaking of safety - medicinal cannabis is the safest medication I have ever recommended.
In over 2,000 individual patient encounters I have had exactly two reports of adverse reactions to the medicine. Both were in patients new to cannabis who experienced the typical anxiety/paranoia reaction that is well described in the literature, lasts for a short period and has no known long-term adverse effects. I had never really considered the safety profile of cannabis until this year, but thinking back on my career as an ER doctor, I never cared for anyone with a marijuana-related emergency. When I compare that with the number of people I have pronounced dead due to the legal consumption of alcohol or 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 taken away 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 to outright anger. One official told me that my patient was not using medicine but an illegal drug and that their department was going to "rip up every plant they could find." I recently went to court for a patient and, based on the prosecutor's behavior it appears that once she realized that my patient was protected under the law, she switched to a tactic that has been used in other states to scare physicians away from writing recommendations for medical cannabis - she attempted to discredit me.
When other physicians hear about the legal issues that colleagues and patients are faced with, it is not surprising that they vote in favor of the medicine but shy away from writing the recommendation. Some physicians even prefer to avoid consulting on shared patients who use medical marijuana, out of fear of legal reprisal. These fears are so widespread that it has become a standard of care to not consult with a cannabis 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 physician practices to let patients know if they are cannabis friendly. The other option is 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 team out of fear of rejection. Over the next year, as we see dispensaries opening and people becoming more comfortable with the concept of cannabis as medicine, it is my hope that the issues of 2013 become a thing of the past and my patients are able to use their medicine in peace.
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Milforddailynews.com
Author: Jill Griffin, M.D
Contact: Home - Milford Daily News - Milford, MA
Website: Griffin: The medicine in marijuana - Opinion - Milford Daily News - Milford, MA
A year has passed and I now have nearly a thousand patients in my practice who are benefiting from the regular use of medical marijuana. My patients use cannabis in a variety of forms. The ones who can't swallow take it as a tincture - absorbed under the tongue. Arthritic patients apply cannabis salve directly to their painful joints. Some patients inhale the smokeless vapor of the plant, others take it in food or as a highly concentrated oil. Some of my patients simply take the fresh leaves of the plant, toss them in a blender and make smoothies rich in healthy cannabinoids that can't get you high. Cannabis that can't get you high and you don't have to smoke it? Correct. Out of necessity, patients have devised numerous ways to safely take their medicine. And speaking of safety - medicinal cannabis is the safest medication I have ever recommended.
In over 2,000 individual patient encounters I have had exactly two reports of adverse reactions to the medicine. Both were in patients new to cannabis who experienced the typical anxiety/paranoia reaction that is well described in the literature, lasts for a short period and has no known long-term adverse effects. I had never really considered the safety profile of cannabis until this year, but thinking back on my career as an ER doctor, I never cared for anyone with a marijuana-related emergency. When I compare that with the number of people I have pronounced dead due to the legal consumption of alcohol or 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 taken away 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 to outright anger. One official told me that my patient was not using medicine but an illegal drug and that their department was going to "rip up every plant they could find." I recently went to court for a patient and, based on the prosecutor's behavior it appears that once she realized that my patient was protected under the law, she switched to a tactic that has been used in other states to scare physicians away from writing recommendations for medical cannabis - she attempted to discredit me.
When other physicians hear about the legal issues that colleagues and patients are faced with, it is not surprising that they vote in favor of the medicine but shy away from writing the recommendation. Some physicians even prefer to avoid consulting on shared patients who use medical marijuana, out of fear of legal reprisal. These fears are so widespread that it has become a standard of care to not consult with a cannabis 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 physician practices to let patients know if they are cannabis friendly. The other option is 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 team out of fear of rejection. Over the next year, as we see dispensaries opening and people becoming more comfortable with the concept of cannabis as medicine, it is my hope that the issues of 2013 become a thing of the past and my patients are able to use their medicine in peace.
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Milforddailynews.com
Author: Jill Griffin, M.D
Contact: Home - Milford Daily News - Milford, MA
Website: Griffin: The medicine in marijuana - Opinion - Milford Daily News - Milford, MA
