Prescriptions for Medical Marijuana
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-09-01/prescriptions-medical-marijuana
Fourteen states and the District of Colombia have legalized marijuana for medical purposes. Which patients qualify for prescriptions and how business models are being developed for dispensaries.
Guests
Dr. Lester Grinspoon
associate professor of psychiatry (emeritus) at Harvard Medical School.
Allen St. Pierre
executive director, NORML and The NORML Foundation, a nonprofit foundation established to better educate the public about marijuana and marijuana policy options.
Stephen DeAngelo
executive director of the Harborside Health Center in Oakland and San Jose, California.
Dr. Donald Vereen
physician and director of community-based public health at the School of Public Health, the University of Michigan; former deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Comments
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Here are some links to medical/scientific research on the medicinal uses of cannabis that might be useful for background. . Sorry...it's kind of late for today's show.
Science News:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/59872/title/Not_just_a_high
University of California:
http://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/geninfo/research.htm
Granny Storm Crow's List (of research listed by ailment):
https://www.icmag.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=1422&topicid=1
I'm glad to see this topic is getting attention. I would also hope that the issue of the Feds ignoring the rights of the states by interfering with medical marijauna growers and dispensaries. Local law enforcement and city councils seem to think they too can ignore the new state laws, atleast in Michigan.
Among other pieces of important historical precedent, Daniel Okrent's "Last Call" goes into the booming Prohibition-era business of medicinal liquor---a doctor could prescribe (I think it was) up to 1 pint per patient every ten days, and as a result drugstores became much more common.
Most of the doctors doing this were evidently very liberal (in the old sense) in this, prescribing it for anything to any adult who asked and paid. They received $3-5 per prescription, maybe $25-40 in today's money, still not a lot, but for a consultation that lasted less than a minute when most patients were seen for about thirty.
"Last Call" a least seems like an invaluable resource for anyone looking at drugs prohibitions these days, down to complexities induced by the fact that possession of alcoholic beverages was perfectly legal in one's home, but manufacturing wine outside of the house (except for religious or medicinal purposes), or liquor anywhere, was illegal, producing a situation much like the current one for medical marijuana in California, and de facto for the Netherlands (though possession is de jure illegal).
My mother is suffering from advanced multiple sclerosis. She not only endures uncontrollable muscle spasms but also constant pain. Both of these symptoms can be treated with cannabis. Unfortunately, we don't have that option. We spend literally thousands of dollars on prescription drugs. Recently, we altered her pain medication, and afterwards, she spent a week going through horrendous withdraws: bed sweats, pain, spasms. She barely eat or drink.
I have a daughter with a little know illness with extreme neuropathic pain in her feet, legs, and buttocks giving her a very poor quality of life. Between the pain meds and those for migraines, she is heavily medicated with narcotics with little relief and the opportunity for addiction. This pain affects every aspect of her daily life including sleep. She is in a state where she cannot even see if marijuanna would be a better alternative or addition for her drugs. All her doctors agree there is no other help for her than what she now uses. Question: is the pharmacy companies funding the fight against medicinal use and is the ban anything more than a moral issue?
Marijuana or rather hemp was banned in the 30's under pressure of the oil industry, the pharmaceutical industry and cotton industry as a threat to their business. It still continues today.
Just as medical ozone is banned in general across the country as its a threat to Big Pharma.
I wonder how much this push is a gize to want to legalize recreational use.
Most comments by the panel describe benefits. A question was asked about problem of people getting high.
What about other downsides or side-effects of marijuana? Is it illegal for good reasons today? Does it kill brain cells or diminish mental capacity?
(If none of this is true, why do we work so hard to keep people (our kids especially) from doing it?)
Too many young people have been criminalized by illegal mariquana. If you think smoking mariquana should be illegal because it leads to more dangerous drugs then we should criminalize tobacco and alcohol.
Too many young lives have been ruined by mariquana laws.
I use cannabis for autoimmune symptoms and find it much more effective than my legally prescribed Vicodin, Oxycontin and Tramodol. I started growing a small amount for my own medical use because it horrifies me to think that I could be supporting a dangerous and often extremely violent drug lord/cartel just purchasing what I consider my medicine. Not to mention who knows what could be in the cannabis
Regarding cannabis side effects; I personally have far more and far more serious side effects with my "legal" meds! I can't even think about working if I have to take 2-3 vicodin tabs in a 24-hr period. With pot I do get a little buzzed but it lasts only about an hour. With the narcs I still get high and it lasts a lot longer than the cannabis. Vicodin, oxycontin and the others are sold as street drugs for a reason; they get you high
Florida has some of the most harsh laws on pot.
20 grams is a felony.
A Felony cost tax payers $1,000 to process.
Being a convicted felon prevents 1 from getting work and going to school.
Then they have no choice but to remain in poverty or become career criminals.
The laws need to be changed ASAP!
A bad judge sent my brother to prison to 30 years for possession of drugs. He was a non violent criminal drug addict.
This is an issue which I often feel just gets too much attention. It is simply a PLANT we are talking about here. One which has thousands of uses, all of them, which by the way are positive.
To quote Bill Hicks "Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn't the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit . . . unnatural?”
Yet the "war on drugs" continues...
What about the cancer danger? Just as with smoking cigarettes, doesn't the smoke from a marijuana cigarette pose a danger?
The problem is a proverbial catch 22 I believe.
Studies, and the monies needed to fund them, are not easily or readily done due to the illegality of the marijuana - who is going to support them "above board" with the illegality and stigma attached to it from years of propaganda. The fact that it's current, most used method of delivery is smoking only adds to the stigmata with our continual, rightful emphasis of anti-smoking. There are others methods of delivery available that will remove the "smoking a joint" mentality but getting the approval, funding, and objective analysis is near-impossible under current rules, perceptions, etc.
Could an MS patient benefit from a delta-9 THC patch? We sadly may never know ...
The stigma of marijuana in the public perception driven more by propaganda than facts, and we fail to "judge" it on merits in relationship, not separate subjective analysis. Alcohol is a drug, but because we publicly accept it, it is too oft referred to as "alcohol and drugs" and not "alcohol and other drugs".
Decriminalization of alcohol stopped bootlegging and high profits to organized criminals and continues to raise millions in "sin tax" every year for state and federal tax governments. How much is being spent to charge, prosecute, incarcerate, and supervise parolees of marijuana drug offenses versus what could be saved and subsequently raised in tax dollars to help further fund true national priorities like education, health care, and deficit/debt reduction?
Great show Diane; your discussions are always invigorating, enlightening and thought-provoking - thanks for another fabulous show!
merwan is my middle name. when it comes to shows , like cops , you know bad boys bad boys what you going to do when they come for you. just shows how they wave a gun in your face throw you down on the ground and hit a person just because they have marijuana on them. is a crime in it's self . i can't watch that show no more, because i just want to go outside and yell it's war. the Government will have a hard time admitting they were wrong all this time . for the simple reason it would be pay back time. the GOVERNMENT brain washed my Grandfather to thinking you might as well be a killer. i can think of 10,000 things i worry more about than someone smoking a joint. i get real bad migraines when i stop smoking, to have someone who doesn't know what they are talking about tell me i can't smoke weed makes me mad as hell . if you had migraines witch ruins your day and next , because i get a real bad hangover the next day, but when i smoke marijuana i have no migraines none. for 5 years , i know this to be true because i got arrested for public intoxication. and was put on probation and i started getting the migraines again, right after i was let go from probation. i started to smoke again and for 10 years no more migraines. i am 40 so i know it helps me in many ways. i only weigh 110 pounds it helps me gain weight. it helps me go to sleep. and get up. wake up America . i hate the fact you got yo prove ( pay someone ) to say i can use it for medical use , i live in Indiana and live so close to michigan border which lets you have medical marijuana . i don't want to move. if i did it would not be in the United States, somewhere were marijuana is legal. i hate being labeled a criminal for over 23 years. just because the majority rules doesn't mean they are right. i could write a book because their is so much more i could say. if this changes 1 person view about it tell me . mmerwans@gmail.com or any comment .
The major issue that I see is not so much the use of Marijuana, but rather the in ability to test a person regarding how high they really are.
When we look at industries such as the Nuclear Industry, the military, and various industries that require people to be free of substance use to perform their tasks in a safe and efficient manner. Drug screening will test a person who may be using and even if they are currently not being affected by the drug, will still be singled out for use.
What the Country needs to allow for legalization of the the drug is to develop a test that will determine to what level a person is high. We have this for alcohol, and understand how much alcohol affects a person. If we were to develop a test that can guide law enforcement officers in the same way that alcohol is tested then legalization is far more feasible.
In general I thought that today's show was rather well done. The only issue that I had was that Diane is clearly against marijuana. I came to this conclusion by the way she worded some of her questions. One example of this was "does legalizing medical marijuana lead us down the slippery slope to complete legalization and taxation."
Here is where I take issue with that loaded question. First of all, not only is it not a slippery slope but a path we are already on. People are finally waking up to the fact that marijuana was originally demonized for racial, political, and corporate fiscal reasons. Marijuana is less harmful than all of the drugs we already put into our bodies. I am talking about daily drugs like alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine.
Secondly the question was asked in a manner that made it sound like legalization was a horrible idea. If any of you do not know the stats on the amount of money that we spend to incarcerate people arrested for possession of marijuana, or how much we spend enforcing these outdated laws please go to www.norml.com and educate yourself. The amount of money states would bring in for regulation and distribution of this plant is staggering. If you combine that with the amount they would save from no longer needing to enforce these laws, then you are immediately balancing most states budgets. Heck, you will be giving most of them a surplus.
California will be legalizing and regulating marijuana coming this November. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about it is called prop. 19. Legalization would be a step in the right direction for our country. Please try to get past the lies you have been fed over the past 90 years.
Diane thank you for expanding our understanding of the world we live in.
A true professonal. Inquiring on everyones intrest not just one point of view.
The pannel was top knoch.
Again i thank you for your example of courage and ability to talk about subjects that others may not.
I have not smoked pot since high school--more than 30 years ago--yet I found myself "jonesing" for a toke while listening to Diane Rehm's guests gush about the fabulous new strains of this drug and its miraculous medical applications. Why was there no mention of the plant's harmful side effects--including lung cancer--or the fact that marijuana is still considered a gateway drug to cocaine and other more potentially harmful narcotics? Although my best friend conquered her chemo-related nausea thanks to medical marijuana, I know of others who are obtaining prescriptions simply to get high. MC, Washington, DC.
Marijuana May Not Be The Gateway Drug Some Think
http://cannabisnews.com/news/25/thread25922.shtml
I enjoyed your show Tuesday and believe cannabis needs to be discussed with knowledgeable people like Dr. Grinspoon and Allen St. Pierre. I have been a witness to the positive effects of cannabis, and believe people of integrity who value logical approaches to life and health would come to the conclusion that the prohibition of cannabis is a political farce that has been perpetrated on people for decades.
In the discussion of the case of the gentleman who was fired from his job at Wal-Mart because he used medical cannabis, you stated that if he used cannabis the night before and came to work the next day after any "high" effects had passed "who is to know?" In fact, if anyone at work would be aware that he used his medical cannabis in the past month, it is likely that a routine work "physical" (urinalysis) would detect THC. Thanks to the "War on some Drugs" all it would take is the wrong word from a co-worker to find yourself being subjected to one of these "work physicals".
Cannabinoid metabolites are the only molecules such urinalysis would pick up after a few days ( as opposed to hard drugs, which clear relatively quickly). This is part of the reason cannabis is such a good therapeutic: long half-life with respect to some therapeutic molecules, no toxicity. It's also the reason it makes someone who chooses to consume cannabis such "easy pickings" for law enforcement or an employer who wants to "make an example" of someone.
Yes, god forbid people do something that is enjoyable.
And I believe the word you were going for is "guise".
Like most arguments against the use of cannabis, for medicine or recreation, the lung cancer connection has been quite satisfactorily been put to rest.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR200605...
As a matter of fact, there is considerable evidence that the opposite is true.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm
Among other well established uses, THC is showing remarkable promise in the treatment of several types of cancer. Unfortunately, law and propaganda born of ignorance, greed and prejudice is blocking research that could lead to saving and improving the quality of countless lives.