This week I met with a Maine medical marijuana patient. This particular patient is fortunate. She is able to supply herself medicine, has a doctor who understands the known benefits of marijuana and believes patients should have some input and choice in deciding their course of treatment. The patient I spoke with uses marijuana to treat chronic pain (a qualifying condition under the law). She feels strongly that she does not want to take one of the many FDA approved pharmaceuticals recommended for her condition. She, like many patients who qualify under Maine law for medical marijuana, is choosing to avoid other medications or courses of treatment that are known to have potentially serious side effects and risk of addiction.
Yet she tells me that many qualifying Maine patients are not able to find physicians willing to recommend marijuana. Doctors have been directed by the Maine Medical Association to advise patients that there are "other FDA approved drugs" that will work just fine, despite what doctors hear patients say about their experience using or their desire to try marijuana.
So doctors in Maine are refusing to prescribe medical marijuana, even when patients have problems with other FDA approved drugs." Many FDA approved drugs’ common side effects include constipation, nausea, sedation, dizziness, vomiting, headache, dry mouth, sweating, and weakness, and in some cases death. Some FDA approved drugs have an "abuse liability similar to morphine."
So patients - very, very ill patients - are being told they by their doctors that they must choose. They must decide whether to engage in criminal activity and to obtain the treatment they need or comply with their doctor and consume pharmaceuticals that may not alleviate their symptoms and expose them to potentially harmful side effects and risk of addiction.
The model letter from the Maine Medical Association and the patient letter from Portland's India Street Health Clinic reflect and to some extent perpetuate the misconception and fear that medical marijuana patients are criminals trying to swindle doctors out of a recommendation for the drug so they can redirect their medication to the black market.
But this is far from reality.
How many 83 year-old glaucoma patients can you see slinging their (not inexpensive) meds on the street for cash? Can you picture it any more than you could if he was selling Oxycontins or Methadone or Valium or any of the other very lucrative prescription drugs currently found on the medicine cabinets throughout our state?
Others voice concern that clinics and dispensaries will attract crime and robbers.
Despite the continued fear surrounding dispensaries and the stigma directed at patients, caregivers, and doctors - here's the reality:
Mainers have been growing and using medical marijuana for over 10 years without significant problems for communities or law enforcement.
Medical marijuana patients are no more likely to sell or divert their medication than other patients.
Dispensaries attract no more crime than a bank.
Research shows it is extremely easy for people of all ages and backgrounds to obtain marijuana. Increasing access and legal protections for patients do just that - it increases lawful access for patients.
It's a shame that, despite the strong support of Mainers for medical marijuana, the debate continues to be "more focused on preventing abuses than on getting affordable medicine to sick people."
It's time to get back to what's important, as described by one advocate - "increasing access for people who suffer from certain defined debilitating conditions to their chosen treatment: marijuana."