Montana's traveling cannabis caravans, responsible for signing up thousands of people for medical marijuana cards in the last year, will be a thing of a the past if a group of lawmakers here gets its way.
A bipartisan panel spent most of Tuesday morning brainstorming changes to Montana's existing medical marijuana laws, taking particular aim at traveling clinics, which according to some, have exploited problems in Montana's law and made medical marijuana much more common.
Among its ideas: physicians who recommend marijuana for their patients must have an established practice in Montana, and they must have a face-to-face evaluation of a patient before issuing the person a medical marijuana recommendation.
"No more telemedicine, no more traveling," said Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, chairwoman of the committee.
They also recommended that doctors follow professional standards of care when dealing with a potential medical marijuana patient and they must look at a patient's medical records before making a recommendation for medical marijuana.
The panel also recommended changing the kinds of health conditions that would qualify someone for a medical marijuana card. Someone seeking a card for the broad topic of "chronic pain" would have to have two doctors' recommendations, including one by specialist, according to the panel.
About 13,000 of the 17,000 Montanans who have medical marijuana cards use the drug for "chronic pain," said Sen. Rick Laible, R-Darby, a nonvoting member of the committee.
The legislators also took up the cards themselves, saying people should have to have the card on them and have some form of photo identification when using medical marijuana.
The group, an offshoot of the Families, Children, Public Health and Human Services interim committee, which has been studying the issue, anticipates having the bill written by August. Its ideas are still a long way from becoming law. First, any bill would have to be endorsed by the whole committee and then presented to the entire Legislature for its approval in January.
***
The panel's ideas will not be the only medical marijuana bills for lawmakers to consider, Sands said. Lawmakers will likely have a range of ideas, she said, from repealing Montana's medical marijuana law entirely to legalizing marijuana for all purposes.
The committee is also considering banning the smoking of marijuana in public.
It is scheduled to meet again next month, when the committee will take up the growing and distribution of medical marijuana.
Sands and others on the panel said the traveling clinics are one of the main drivers behind public animus toward medical marijuana.
But Jim Gingery, executive director of the Montana Medical Growers Association, a trade group of medical marijuana growers, told lawmakers that many doctors in Montana are forbidden from recommending cannabis to their patients, even if they think it could help them. Doctors who work for any government-supported hospital and doctors affiliated with many of state's hospitals cannot prescribe cannabis either because their hospital forbids it or because their hospital could lose federal funding for promoting a substance that is considered an illicit drug at the federal level.
"That's the whole thing with the traveling clinics," he said. "That's where it got started."
Chris Arneson, public relations officer for Montana Caregivers Network, the Missoula organization that has hosted most of Montana's traveling clinics and teleconferences, said in an interview with the Missoulian State Bureau that the teleconferences are misunderstood. It's true that the network does employ a physician who will meet with patients over a digital video link, but all those patients must either fax or e-mail their medical records to the doctor, Arneson said, and most of those patients were referred to the network because their treating physician is not in a position to prescribe medical marijuana.
Such teleconferencing is merely a convenience for people who cannot drive to their Missoula offices.
"They're in too much pain," he said.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Missoulian.com
Author: JENNIFER McKEE
Contact: Missoulian.com
Copyright: 2010 Missoulian.com
Website: Ban on traveling medical marijuana clinics among possible changes to laws
* Thanks to MedicalNeed for submitting this article
A bipartisan panel spent most of Tuesday morning brainstorming changes to Montana's existing medical marijuana laws, taking particular aim at traveling clinics, which according to some, have exploited problems in Montana's law and made medical marijuana much more common.
Among its ideas: physicians who recommend marijuana for their patients must have an established practice in Montana, and they must have a face-to-face evaluation of a patient before issuing the person a medical marijuana recommendation.
"No more telemedicine, no more traveling," said Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, chairwoman of the committee.
They also recommended that doctors follow professional standards of care when dealing with a potential medical marijuana patient and they must look at a patient's medical records before making a recommendation for medical marijuana.
The panel also recommended changing the kinds of health conditions that would qualify someone for a medical marijuana card. Someone seeking a card for the broad topic of "chronic pain" would have to have two doctors' recommendations, including one by specialist, according to the panel.
About 13,000 of the 17,000 Montanans who have medical marijuana cards use the drug for "chronic pain," said Sen. Rick Laible, R-Darby, a nonvoting member of the committee.
The legislators also took up the cards themselves, saying people should have to have the card on them and have some form of photo identification when using medical marijuana.
The group, an offshoot of the Families, Children, Public Health and Human Services interim committee, which has been studying the issue, anticipates having the bill written by August. Its ideas are still a long way from becoming law. First, any bill would have to be endorsed by the whole committee and then presented to the entire Legislature for its approval in January.
***
The panel's ideas will not be the only medical marijuana bills for lawmakers to consider, Sands said. Lawmakers will likely have a range of ideas, she said, from repealing Montana's medical marijuana law entirely to legalizing marijuana for all purposes.
The committee is also considering banning the smoking of marijuana in public.
It is scheduled to meet again next month, when the committee will take up the growing and distribution of medical marijuana.
Sands and others on the panel said the traveling clinics are one of the main drivers behind public animus toward medical marijuana.
But Jim Gingery, executive director of the Montana Medical Growers Association, a trade group of medical marijuana growers, told lawmakers that many doctors in Montana are forbidden from recommending cannabis to their patients, even if they think it could help them. Doctors who work for any government-supported hospital and doctors affiliated with many of state's hospitals cannot prescribe cannabis either because their hospital forbids it or because their hospital could lose federal funding for promoting a substance that is considered an illicit drug at the federal level.
"That's the whole thing with the traveling clinics," he said. "That's where it got started."
Chris Arneson, public relations officer for Montana Caregivers Network, the Missoula organization that has hosted most of Montana's traveling clinics and teleconferences, said in an interview with the Missoulian State Bureau that the teleconferences are misunderstood. It's true that the network does employ a physician who will meet with patients over a digital video link, but all those patients must either fax or e-mail their medical records to the doctor, Arneson said, and most of those patients were referred to the network because their treating physician is not in a position to prescribe medical marijuana.
Such teleconferencing is merely a convenience for people who cannot drive to their Missoula offices.
"They're in too much pain," he said.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Missoulian.com
Author: JENNIFER McKEE
Contact: Missoulian.com
Copyright: 2010 Missoulian.com
Website: Ban on traveling medical marijuana clinics among possible changes to laws
* Thanks to MedicalNeed for submitting this article
