(WestWord) According to [Colorado State Senator Chris] Romer, he spoke to the [student newspaper] in order to reach students at the University of Colorado, among others. His goal: to shine a spotlight on his thoughts concerning the creation of “a medical review board for those under the age of 25.” He doubts that marijuana is medically necessary for a lot of younger people who’ve managed to get a doctor’s approval for obtaining it. As he puts it, “There’s some evidence of abuse in that age category when you correlate the statistics about conditions that can benefit from medical marijuana and then cross-correlate that data with those under 25.”
He’d like to “tighten up the requirements to get approval to receive medical marijuana. I’d like the initial review to include a full physical, and then that diagnosis would be sent to a second review board for their concurrence.”
What exactly is this “abuse” Sen. Romer is concerned with? That some young people might not be in quite enough pain to really deserve medical marijuana? That a person under age 25 might receive a recommendation from a doctor who doesn’t quite have the medical training and background to evaluate pain to Sen. Romer’s standards?
Here’s what I don’t understand about people who cry about “abuse” of medical marijuana. Let’s assume you have a 21-year-old who is smoking pot. Irrespective of any physical ailment, whether she lives with absolute torture from chronic pain or she just gets an annoying headache every six months, how would you prefer the 21-years-old’s use of marijuana be dealt with? Should we:
- Require her to visit a physician who verifies her ailment, have her fill out paperwork with the state, pay a fee to the state, become listed in a state registry, receive an identification card, and purchase marijuana from a regulated facility, where her ID and recommendation are checked, no minors are allowed, and her purchase creates jobs in a tough economy and generates sales taxes for the state; or
- Have her find a friend with a connection or a dealer in a park, where no doctor sees her, her use is unknown to the state, and all revenues generated support everything from a dealer buying a new sports car to a Mexican cartel buying a local cop.
“If a patient has cancer or multiple sclerosis, that’s not going to be particularly hard to document in a physical review,” he maintains. “But 90 percent of the people who come in under the category of ‘chronic pain,’ we’ll go through a little more due diligence. Those who really do have chronic pain will make it through the system, and those who are abusing the system will not.”
So in addition to the review already performed by a patients’ doctor, Sen. Romer wants another full physical by another doctor, and a review panel of still more doctors to make sure that the patient is in severe enough pain to warrant the recommendation of a non-toxic herb. Even Oxycontin, Vicodin, and morphine patients aren’t subject to that type of strict review! Because if someone was only in slight pain and using medical marijuana, why, that would… uh… well, I’m not sure what the down side is there aside from denying an opportunity for police to arrest someone who was willing to visit a doctor, pay a fee, and get a card to smoke pot.
As for those people “who set up a clinic with a pool table and video games,” Romer says, “that model isn’t going to fly — and I don’t think they’re going to be around in six months.”
“I’ve come across dispensaries and caregivers who I think provide fantastic care for their patients,” Romer emphasizes. “But I’ve also come across dispensaries that resemble frat houses, not clinics. I don’t know if 50 percent or more are in the frat house mode, but those in the clinical mode will survive, and those in the frat-house mode will go out of business — and the sooner, the better. And for people who really need medical marijuana, that’s a good thing.”
What does that mean, “frat house mode”? Does that mean medicine can only be dispensed and administered in a sterile, clinical, serious place and that all forms of entertainment must be abolished? What then of hospitals with their TVs in every patients’ room, or with a social area with board games or video games? What Sen. Romer and others don’t understand is that we are social animals and that many patients lose so many social outlets because they cannot use their medicine in a public place. If you suffer chronic pain and you have a Vicodin prescription, you can go to the movie, concert, parade, club, ballgame, or play, and if sitting still for three hours becomes too painful, you can open your pill bottle and pop a Vicodin. Medical marijuana patients don’t have that option because of the illegality of marijuana for healthy people and lack of smoking areas even if it were legal. So many dispensaries in California and Colorado and now the café in Oregon provide a place for patients to enjoy some social interaction and entertainment in comfort and safety.
Loading ...
Thanks for your input and you are right, there is a severe epidemic in under-treatment of chronic pain in this country, but I’d point out that under-treatment is yet another symptom of this War on Drugs which is built on the arrests of marijuana users. But however many hoops you must jump through, at least you have those hoops in all fifty states. Chronic pain patients who wish to use marijuana don’t have any hoops in 37 states, and those who do in the 13 medical marijuana states often must choose between marijuana and opioids because the pain management people still consider cannabis an “illegal drug”.
As a chronic pain patient, on round-the-clock opioids, your reporting is in error. Chronic pain patients who are prescribed opioids for the long-term absolutely have to go through intense scrutiny, sign and follow pain contracts, have a minimum of monthly visits with their physician and a “pain specialist” physician, only one physician can write and refill the prescriptions, we can only visit one pharmacy for refills, no early refills, and we are tracked by the state. Most of the chronic pain patients I know have a primary care physician, a pain expert physician, a psychiatrist who has done a screening for drug abuse potential, a psychologist and a physical therapist. The psychology of pain has taught us that it usually takes a team to deal with chronic pain. The hoops we jump through are much more stringent than most people realize. Reality for the pain patient is not an episode of House. The average chronic pain patient has been to many doctors before they actually get a diagnosis and a doctor willing and/or educated enough to prescribe opioids on a regular basis. The suicide rate is higher than most people realize as the chronic pain patient just gives up sometimes. I have no idea where you are getting your information but I have lived the nightmare of chronic pain. Although I don’t agree with the hysteria in this country about pain relieving medicines, I resent the reporting that chronic pain patients who chose another route (other than marijuana) are just waltzing in and out of doctors’ offices getting whatever we want. And by the way, Vicodin is not a chronic pain medicine, it is for acute pain. And I cannot just simply pop a pill and be on my merry way as I must watch for side effects and be aware of the laws regarding driving under the influence and plan my trips accordingly. I am on the side of any chronic pain patient and I voted for the law. Please don’t pit us against the marijuana patients with articles like the one I just read. My own very strong opinion is that at the very least, there must be open and frequent communication between a caregiver and the patient’s primary physician. It is for their safety and health.
prohabition is saying You will do what I tell you
You know,They are violating the Constitution George Washington wrote Now Tommy’s mellow,in Monticello, toking up and writing down those grand ideals. Since we smoked and spoke and joked about the future of this land, I think I understand just how he feels. We hold these truths to be self evident, etcetera, down to the part we like the best; to protect our own indulgences, we guaranteed the pursuit of happiness
You know I was disabled at age 23 so I cant stand when these Antidrugies talk about younger people just abusing the system. No I was 22, wish I would have had the option to use cannabis instead way back then.
Yet another article proving how dumb people really are.
Vicoden is fine ’cause its “legal”
nobody gives a damn about the positive effects of a substance if it’s illegal.
but because stuff like Oxycontin is legal it must be “good” and everybody turns a deaf ear to the side effects.
When I die and if there are still prohibitionists around, I will personally haunt every one of them until they are driven mad or until they realize what they have done.