Nearly 2,000 MMJ patient recommendations nixed over quiet rule change

[Kartel]

Medical marijuana: Nearly 2,000 MMJ patient recommendations nixed over quiet rule change - Denver News - The Latest Word


Over the past week or so, medical marijuana patients across the state have learned that doctor recommendations for the card allowing them to use MMJ have been rejected. Why? A new health department policy that slid into place almost unnoticed -- one that's likely to disenfranchise and anger nearly 2,000 patients, as well as infuriating impacted doctors and clinics.

Why? A change in definition for doctors approved to write medical marijuana recommendations that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment began enforcing late last month. Department spokesman Mark Salley confirms that eighteen doctors specializing in MMJ are now forbidden to recommend cannabis. But instead of informing the affected physicians, the department has been telling patients who received the recommendations, some of which date back to the early months of 2010. They've then been filling in the doctors, often in extremely heated ways.

Kartel Reviewed by Kartel on 11-06-2010. Nearly 2,000 MMJ patient recommendations nixed over quiet rule change Medical marijuana: Nearly 2,000 MMJ patient recommendations nixed over quiet rule change - Denver News - The Latest Word Over the past week or so, medical marijuana patients across the state have learned that doctor recommendations for the card allowing them to use MMJ have been rejected. Why? A new health department policy that slid into place almost unnoticed -- one that's likely to disenfranchise and anger nearly 2,000 patients, as well as infuriating impacted doctors and clinics. Rating: 5

[canaguy27]

i guarantee you that they received these notices past the 35 days, therefore, they are automatically granted the card.

i wish someone had the balls to stick it to them on this issue.

[FlyinPolynesian]

It seems even more unconstitutional for them to not post which Doctors are being denied, theyʻll accept your money knowing that your doctors Recommendation is gonna be denied. Seems like fraud on behalf of the department for not divulging this list of denied Docʻs!!

[copobo]

it seems evil that they handle all of this in such an underhanded way.

why does it need to be like this? it's like the cdphe are just a bunch of politically motivated sore losers. make the rules, but fuck, there should be a fair deliberate, informed and transparent process.

[Kartel]

I was shocked when I read this... I don't know if I have even a shred of optimism left for the direction of MMJ in CO or anywhere in the country at this point. :wtf:

[ds0110]

$90 non-refundable fee x 2000 patient applications = $180,000 stolen from sick people...

[MEDEDCANNABIS]

$90 non-refundable fee x 2000 patient applications = $180,000 stolen from sick people...

hmmmm, i need money...wait i know! denied, denied, denied, denied........
pocket said money, pocket, pocket, pocket, pocket, pocket.........



traitors and theives all along



meded for sherrif

[copobo]

they should CERTAINLY refund the fees for retroactive decisions about docs like this!

[MEDEDCANNABIS]

they should CERTAINLY refund the fees for retroactive decisions about docs like this!

they dont care, herein lies the problem.


meded loves ogxblu satellite 2.2...breeder steve and dj short

[ThaiBuddhaMan]

(cross-posted to all the other related threads in Colorado subforum)

Pot patients get state reprieve after questions about their docs


Pot patients get state reprieve after questions about their docs - The Denver Post

About 2,000 people who were recently notified that their state applications for medical marijuana were rejected because their doctors weren't eligible to refer them for the drug got a temporary reprieve Wednesday from the state.
Ann Hause, an attorney for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said the patients can continue to get marijuana until rules governing which doctors can prescribe marijuana are formalized.
Hause, who appeared Wednesday at a meeting of the Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee, said hearings on the issue likely won't begin until March.
"They are in limbo. I can easily think that people would be confused," said Mark Salley, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The confusion stems from a law passed this year that prohibited doctors not in good standing from recommending patients for medical marijuana. But when the department interpreted that to include doctors with restricted as well as conditional licenses, many doctors objected.
"It improperly punishes a whole host of physicians," Kari Hershey, an attorney for the Colorado Medical Society, told the advisory committee Wednesday.
Hershey said doctors with conditional licenses are allowed to practice medicine under certain conditions.
Dr. Janet Dean said the state does not have a definition of what being a physician in good standing means. One of the doctors blackballed by the state was a neurosurgeon whose practice was limited solely because of a physical disability. There was no reason he couldn't prescribe marijuana, she said.
The state sent letters in late October to the 2,000 patients of 18 doctors initially disqualified to refer them for marijuana based on the department's original interpretation of the new law.
The patients were already legally using marijuana because of a provision that allows them to use their doctor-approved "application" to buy marijuana 35 days after it is signed. The rule was intended to prevent patients from suffering because of a months-long backlog.
The state now has 114,000 medical-marijuana patients, who must renew annually.
The legislature passed the law limiting which doctors can prescribe marijuana after complaints that some doctors were recommending marijuana to virtually any patient who wished to have it, Salley said.


(cross-posted to all the other related threads in Colorado subforum)