On October 9 LD 1062 – An Act To Add Conditions That Qualify For Medical Marijuana Use will go into effect. Once enacted, this law will allow medical marijuana to be prescribed for those currently suffering from PTSD, dyskenetic and spastic movement disorders, and irritable bowl syndrome.
This law is a huge step in putting important decisions about medical care for many Mainers where they belong – in the hands of patients and their doctors. Bureaucrats and lawmakers (very few of whom have any medical training) should not be defining which specific medical conditions and symptoms can be effectively addressed with medical marijuana. Furthermore, patients and their loved ones should be able to make vitally important health decisions without fear of state interference, arrest or prosecution.
Perhaps most importantly, this law will help stop the needless criminalization of many our patients. This law goes a long way in further combating the misguided portrayal of medical marijuana patients and caregivers as criminals and bringing some of Maine’s most vulnerable citizens out of the shadows, away from the black market and into a doctors office.
This law also takes significant steps in restoring individual privacy and medical autonomy to Maine’s patients. This law properly allows patients to keep their medical condition and treatment decisions between their doctors and themselves. By returning medical decisions to the doctors instead of bureaucrats, we will ensure more patients will be able to lawfully use the medication they need to alleviate their suffering.
While there is much work to be done on ending the criminalization of marijuana, this law makes a significant step forward. It enables many Mainers to make decisions about their own health care without fear of state persecution and allows lawfully access to vital medicine for many of Maine’s patients.
