CALIFORNIA POT DOCTORS TARGETED ...

California 'Pot Docs' Risk Drug Charges When Prescribing Meds

Sunday , November 05, 2006


COOL, Calif. â?? Dr. Mollie Fry never thought telling her patients where to get the medicine she recommended for pain, depression and nausea would be a problem.

Federal drug agents who raided her home and office thought otherwise, and she was indicted last year on felony charges of conspiring to distribute marijuana.

"I assumed the fact that I had 'M.D.' at the end of my name gave me the right to make judgments about people's health," said Fry, who estimates she has issued thousands of cannabis recommendations since setting up her thriving practice northeast of Sacramento in 1999.

Since California passed the nation's first medical marijuana law a decade ago, a provision requiring written doctor approval to grow and buy pot has created conflict between the state mandate and federal drug laws, and strained the doctor-patient relationship.

Until the stalemate is resolved, doctors recommending marijuana do it with trepidation and a good deal of risk.

Medical marijuana advocates estimate that 1,500 doctors, mostly oncologists and AIDS specialists, have authorized pot for at least one patient. But most recommendations have come from about 15 self-appointed specialists, the so-called "pot docs," who charge $150 and up to walk what the California Medical Association calls "a gray area between the clearly permissible and clearly impermissible categories of action."

Following complaints by local law enforcement, nearly all have been investigated by the state board that licenses and disciplines physicians. Four had devoted their practices to acting as medical marijuana consultants and ultimately were sanctioned, ranging from the public rebuke that Fry got to having their licenses suspended.

California's medical marijuana law, also known as Proposition 215, named a host of ailments for which marijuana might prove helpful in easing symptoms: cancer, anorexia, AIDS, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine.

Unlike medical marijuana laws enacted in 10 other states, California's also gave doctors discretion to certify patients with "any other illness for which marijuana provides relief," leaving open the possibility that recommendations could be made to people who did not need them.

David Thornton, executive director of the California Medical Board, said that until the board issued guidelines two years ago outlining what constituted "accepted medical standards," physicians pretty much had to figure it out on their own. Most concluded it was not worth the risk.

Although a federal appeals court ruled four years ago that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration cannot go after doctors merely because they recommend marijuana to patients, the state medical board's guidelines make it clear the ruling did not amount to immunity either from prosecution or disciplinary proceedings.

The board advises doctors that relying on a patient's word instead of prior medical records to determine whether a marijuana recommendation is appropriate could constitute medical negligence. Failing to conduct an independent exam or to consider whether another drug would be as effective could lead to charges of unprofessional conduct.

The California Medical Association is even more explicit, warning doctors never to tell patients where to get pot and urging them to remind patients of possible side effects. Discussing dosages with patients, opining on whether they should smoke or eat marijuana, and signing a form that enables patients to obtain a state-issued medical marijuana ID card also are steps the medical association cautions could lead to them being sanctioned.

Frank Lucido, a Berkeley physician who devotes about 30 percent of his practice to working with medical marijuana patients, said he abides by those recommendations, but thinks pot docs are being held to higher standards than doctors who prescribe lots of Viagra, prescription painkillers and other abused medications. Doctors who prescribe sleeping pills for patients who complain of insomnia, Lucido noted, are not at risk of being called quacks if they don't do a hands-on exam or develop a long-term treatment plan.

Fry, 50, who is awaiting trial, continues signing recommendation forms for patients who come to see her from throughout the state. She no longer sells her patients starter plants, but freely tells them about what she sees as the spiritual, emotional and economic benefits of growing their own pot.

"What did I take an oath to do? To do no harm and to alleviate pain and suffering," Fry said. "I'm going to be true to my oath, and I'm even willing to go to prison for it."

this news article came from Nov. 5th FOX NEWS ... :smokin:

Ok, now this is just...wow. Now I really don't think cannabis is going to stay illegal for too much longer. Shit is just getting out of control now. Some one is gonna eventually get pissed off and retaliate :p.

this from yesterday's news on the NORML website ...


MEDICAL MARIJUANA AT A CROSSROADS 10 YEARS LATER
by David Kravets, (Source:Associated Press)


California
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A decade ago Californians passed the nation's first medical marijuana law, but the future of that statute is no clearer now than when voters headed to the polls on Nov. 5, 1996.

The federal government still refuses to recognize Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act approved by 56 percent of voters. And U.S. authorities have won nearly every major legal battle over the measure, from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration.

"We refer to it as marijuana, not medical marijuana, regardless of its reported destination or use," said Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman Casey McEnry, noting that marijuana is an illegal controlled substance under federal law.

The government's war on drugs has also prompted a civil war of sorts within California: three of the state's 58 counties, headed by San Diego County, claim in a lawsuit filed in state court that the measure is illegal.

A hearing is set for Nov. 16 in the lawsuit, which threatens to derail the state's legal tolerance for the medicinal use of a drug that federal law places in the same category as heroin, cocaine and LSD. A victory for those renegade counties might also set legal precedent undermining medical marijuana laws in 10 other states -- Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Voters in South Dakota will consider a medical marijuana measure on Tuesday.

"The state cannot authorize somebody to do something that breaks federal law," said Thomas Bunton, senior deputy counsel for San Diego County.

Medical marijuana is used by thousands of people suffering from AIDS, cancer, anorexia, chronic pain, arthritis, migraines and other illnesses, according to the Marijuana Policy Project. The nation's medical marijuana laws generally allow those with a doctor's recommendation to grow or possess small amounts of the drug.

In 1999, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences expressed concerns about the health risks of smoking marijuana, but acknowledged in a report that "there is no clear alternative for people suffering from chronic conditions that might be relieved by smoking marijuana, such as pain or AIDS wasting."

Later research suggests it might reduce tumor proliferation and a study this year by the University of California at San Francisco showed marijuana "may offer significant benefit" to those suffering from hepatitis C.

The Food and Drug Administration does not recognize marijuana as having medical benefits.

California is the epicenter of the federal-state medical marijuana battle.

Communities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and West Hollywood have authorized storefront medical marijuana dispensaries

Proposition 215 does not expressly allow dispensaries, but Americans for Safe Access, a pro-marijuana lobbying group, estimates there are about 200 operating in California. For many backers of the law, it's an imperfect way for patients to get pot.

"I thought we would have had more of a standardized distribution system by now," said William Panser, an Oakland criminal defense lawyer who was among the handful of attorneys that crafted the proposition.

Federal agents have raided more than two dozen California dispensaries over the past decade, according to Americans for Safe Access. Some communities are now assisting in the crackdown, including San Diego, which recently shuttered thirteen.

A dozen dispensaries found on the Internet and contacted by The Associated Press declined comment or did not return messages.

William Dolphin, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, said dispensaries are also operating secretly in other states, even though they are illegal. "I know they are operating in Oregon, Washington and Colorado. It's underground," he said.

So far, the federal government has taken a piecemeal approach to enforcing federal drug laws, cracking down on a few scattered dispensaries.

"The dispensary issue is a fascinating study in sociology," Panser said. "It's like the speed limit, and everybody is breaking the law but it's being tolerated."

Nowhere is medical marijuana more accepted than in San Francisco, birthplace of the movement. The city's top prosecutor, Kamala Harris, steadfastly supports Proposition 215.

"Sick people using medical marijuana as it relates to Proposition 215 are not criminals and will not be prosecuted," she said.

But she acknowledged that a handful of San Francisco dispensaries raided by federal agents "were out of control" because they were selling pot to customers without a doctor's recommendation.

"There were some abuses," Harris said.

The DEA says it is targeting dispensaries and other large-scale growing and selling operations, whether the marijuana is for medical or illicit use. Federal authorities say they might seize individual users' marijuana, but likely wouldn't arrest medicinal users because they are focused on the supply chain.

"Our mission is to come into contact with the cultivators and the distributors of marijuana," said the DEA's McEnry. "We don't target users."

One such user is Angel Raich, who already lost one case before the U.S. Supreme Court and is likely headed back.

The 41-year-old mother of two from Oakland suffers from scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea and other ailments. On her doctor's advice, Raich uses marijuana every couple of hours to ease her pain and bolster a nonexistent appetite. She smokes it, vaporizes it and cooks it into her food.

Last year, the Supreme Court came down against Raich in the court's second ruling against medical marijuana since 2001. Because Congress decided marijuana was illegal under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, the justices ruled, users and suppliers could be prosecuted for breaching federal drug laws, even if they lived in a state where medical marijuana was legal.

With that ruling, the legal issue has narrowed to the so-called right to life theory: that marijuana should be allowed if it is the only viable option to keep patients alive. Raich and her doctor say without marijuana, she would likely die.

Ten years after the medical marijuana revolution began, Raich never envisioned that she would still be living with the fear of being arrested, or that her supply chain might be cut off.

"It's so scary," she said. "I thought that the feds would just leave us alone."
... yeah, a lot of people did .... (not me) ... :mad:

Y'know maybe we should let them end the medical marijuana thing altogether and see what happens. When people that truly benefited from it starts dying from left to right maybe the government will open it's fucking eyes and see what's going on. Maybe in this type of situation it takes sacrifice to finally clearly show the difference between when it was partially legal and then just completely illegal.

a Doctor in a private practice presribing Marijuana even tho its a violation of Federal Law...yep..sounds like she is getting what she deserved. The way this doctor is sounding, she thinks doctors can prescribe anything, even X if she fealt it needed. The facts are The medical marijuana argument is a total scam, especiay in California where most of the people that frequent these Pot Clubs have no medical need of pot at all except to get high,

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Originally Posted by Myth1184

a Doctor in a private practice presribing Marijuana even tho its a violation of Federal Law...yep..sounds like she is getting what she deserved. The way this doctor is sounding, she thinks doctors can prescribe anything, even X if she fealt it needed. The facts are The medical marijuana argument is a total scam, especiay in California where most of the people that frequent these Pot Clubs have no medical need of pot at all except to get high,

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well, I'm glad you were able to get that off your chest ... :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Myth1184

a Doctor in a private practice presribing Marijuana even tho its a violation of Federal Law...yep..sounds like she is getting what she deserved. The way this doctor is sounding, she thinks doctors can prescribe anything, even X if she fealt it needed. The facts are The medical marijuana argument is a total scam, especiay in California where most of the people that frequent these Pot Clubs have no medical need of pot at all except to get high,

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Thank goodness you'll never be in either a legislative or a medical position of any kind, Myth. Now if only you didn't have a PC or a keyboard. . .

This story concerns me, as I'm sure it does you, too, Image Reaper. I know medical communities in many other states look up to California and pray that both the feds and any legislators with an itch to repeal propostion 215 will simply leave this important freedom alone. What we need is no federal involvement whatsoever--and many more states with similar propositions.

Image Reaper, the reason I've been wanting to get in touch with you was so I could ask you a question that came to me through the hospice folks who cared for my sister. They were very interested in hearing what strains were particularly helpful to cancer patients who use cannabis for pain and/or nausea, and I really haven't determined that answer through what I've read here on the boards. Patients in Texas would have to obtain it through the black market, of course, or grow it themselves, but the hospice folks were quite interested in hearing what experienced medical users had to say on the subject. Sorry to be posting this question here.

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Originally Posted by birdgirl73

Thank goodness you'll never be in either a legislative or a medical position of any kind, Myth. Now if only you didn't have a PC or a keyboard. . .

This story concerns me, as I'm sure it does you, too, Image Reaper. I know medical communities in many other states look up to California and pray that both the feds and any legislators with an itch to repeal propostion 215 will simply leave this important freedom alone. What we need is no federal involvement whatsoever--and many more states with similar propositions.

Image Reaper, the reason I've been wanting to get in touch with you was so I could ask you a question that came to me through the hospice folks who cared for my sister. They were very interested in hearing what strains were particularly helpful to cancer patients who use cannabis for pain and/or nausea, and I really haven't determined that answer through what I've read here on the boards. Patients in Texas would have to obtain it through the black market, of course, or grow it themselves, but the hospice folks were quite interested in hearing what experienced medical users had to say on the subject. Sorry to be posting this question here.

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hello, dear ... no problem ... I can only offer opinion from my personal experience ... nausea isn't one of my problems, but I would guess a 'light' sativa would help more than a heavy, narcotic indica :confused: ... however, I do have severe arthritis pain, nerve spasms from a broken neck, and cancer ... oh, I'm kinda crazy, too :D ... anyway, for pain, I would suggest indicas, strong body-stone strains like Master Kush ... White Rhino is probably the most powerful painreliever/narcotic type, also the old "Chemo" strains are crippling ... pot, in general, is indicated to be very good for cancer patients ... a recent medical study revealed (in mice) that THC caused cancer cells to 'slough-off' from healthy cells ... they lose their bond, and are rendered ineffective ... also, when smoked, marijuana opens up the bronchia in the lungs, just the opposite of the harmful actions of tobacco smoke ... I would recommend the use of a vaporizer, to protect the lungs ... in arthritis, the THC helps a LOT with the pain, while the CBDs have been found to be effective against joint inflammation ... I can personally vouch for the arthritis help, no way I could sleep more than a few minutes without it ... I find it very effective against my depression ... just so no one thinks I'm a blind apologist for marijuana, I would like to add that it is a good drug for people like ME, because I'm retired and disabled ... it would be very hard for me to carry on a normal life, if I still had to go to work, or school, raise a family, etc... it's hard to do those things when you're stoned ... I am not supposed to use most pain relievers, as I had my kidney removed last year (cancer), and most pain meds are processed thru the remaining kidney (not good) ... marijuana doesn't stress my remaining kidney ... unfortunately, Pres. Nixon stopped all pot research years ago, and we are only now beginning to find out about the benefits of the plant ... I'm also supportive of marijuana to help alcoholics, as I feel it is definitely much less harmful ... I tend to be very discriminating, and critical, of things I read, and these statements of mine, are based on what I consider to be legitimate research, a good deal of which has been conducted in European countries, where agencies were allowed to conduct their research ... I hope this rambling dissertation has been of some help ... have a great evening, :smokin:

Your information is amazingly helpful and very thorough. And you can write me a rambling dissertation any time, although I didn't regard this as such. Just coherent, good information. You are truly one of my favorite people on these boards, and I'm glad you were willing to answer this. I'm going to pass on this information to the hospice folks when I talk to them next. And I may eventually get a little poll/survey together and post it on the medical board to catch other medical users and see what they say. Right now, I don't have much oomph to do anything more than read routine board responses. When my intellect returns and I can organize my thoughts again, I'll work on my poll, which you can congratulate yourself on having inspired.

Much love and light to you, Image Reaper, and to everyone else who contends with pain and disabling diseases like cancer and arthritis and depression. (I'm finding depression/grief very disabling at the moment myself. If I had something in a nice, uplifting sativa, I'd smoke it.)