LEGAL DOPE – EVERYONE HAS A PROBLEM

A while ago we noted how the Humboldt marijuana growers where moaning about their possible loss of income in the event of legal dope in California, and now, with Washington DC teetering on the brink of allowing medical marijuana, doctors have started pissing and moaning about how they don’t know how to control dosage and other nonsense.

“For doctors such as Pradeep Chopra, long accustomed to prescribing carefully tested medications by the exact milligram, medical marijuana presents a particular conundrum. On Tuesday, the D.C. Council gave final approval to a bill establishing a legal medical marijuana program. If Congress signs off, District doctors -- like their counterparts in 14 states, including Rhode Island, where Chopra works -- will be allowed to add pot to the therapies they can recommend to certain patients, who will then eat it, smoke it or vaporize it until they decide they are, well, high enough. The exact dosage and means of delivery -- as well as the sometimes perplexing process of obtaining a drug that remains illegal under federal law -- will be left largely up to the patient. And that, Chopra said, upends the way doctors are used to dispensing medication, giving the strait-laced medical establishment a whiff of the freewheeling world of weed. Even in states that allow for marijuana's medical use, doctors cannot write prescriptions for it because of the drug's status as an illegal substance. Physicians can only recommend it. And they have no control over the quality of the drug their patients acquire. "I worry about that," said Chopra, a pain medicine specialist. "That's what's throwing a lot of [doctors] off." The District's measure, like those elsewhere, specifies certain conditions and illnesses that qualify for medical marijuana. A patient who has HIV, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, cancer or a chronic debilitating condition will be able to receive a doctor's recommendation to possess up to four ounces in a 30-day period. Unlike in many states, the District law would not allow patients and caregivers to grow their own marijuana, at least initially; an advisory committee would later decide whether to permit cultivation. Until then, patients could only acquire the drug illegally or from five to eight government-regulated dispensaries. Hunter Groninger, medical director for palliative care at Washington Hospital Center, said he would be uncomfortable recommending marijuana because the medical community doesn't know enough about its benefits. Because there are no uniform standards for medical marijuana, doctors have to rely on the experience of other doctors and their own judgment. That, they say, can lead to abuse.” (Click here for more)

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