Robert Celt
New Member
Medical marijuana is officially legal in Pennsylvania, and many doctors along with residents are perplexed as to what comes next.
"I'm wondering how this is going to be implemented," said Dr. Antoine Douaihy, medical director of addiction medicine services at Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic of UPMC. "It's kind of bizarre. If a patient comes and asks me about a prescription for medical marijuana, I wouldn't know where to start. How much can you prescribe? How are we as physicians going to apply this new law? Who is going to educate the physicians?"
A lot of those answers fall to one person: Dr. Loren Robinson, deputy secretary for health promotion and disease prevention at the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
She acknowledged some solutions could be two years away, anticipating it might take that long to set up a medical marijuana system with up to 150 designated state-regulated dispensaries. The state's new medical marijuana law, signed Sunday by Gov. Tom Wolf, takes effect in about 30 days.
"We think we have thought it out pretty well," Robinson told the Tribune-Review. "But I'm sure as we get started, it will be a learning process, for sure."
There are plenty of places to start, including erasing the notion that doctors will prescribe medical marijuana. They won't.
Doctors cannot legally write prescriptions because marijuana is currently listed under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning the Drug Enforcement Administration considers it to have no medical value. The DEA has said it will decide this year whether to reclassify pot, given the national groundswell of medical marijuana policies.
Under the new state law, patients – after consulting with doctors – can apply for a state-issued medical marijuana card if a doctor certifies that they have one of 17 qualified medical conditions, including epilepsy, autism and cancer. Robinson said the state plans to post certification forms online for patients to download and take to their doctors.
After patients obtain identification cards, they'll be able to purchase forms of medical marijuana on their own at dispensaries. Robinson said the state plans at least one dispensary per county with more in densely populated areas, such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The locations have not been determined. The health department will maintain a database of patients approved to use medical marijuana.
Even after dispensaries are operating in Pennsylvania, patients won't be able to smoke medical pot. The law prohibits dry, smokable marijuana. Patients can consume marijuana in the form of pills, oils and tinctures. Liquid forms of cannabis would also be available for vaporization.
"It's going to be challenging for the medical community to educate patients about when it may or may not be appropriate," said Dr. Todd Barron, medical director of WellSpan Neurosciences in Chambersburg. Barron has studied the use of cannabidiol, a compound in marijuana for treating epileptic patients. "There's a lot of hype surrounding this. The medical community is also going to need to be educated."
Education for doctors will most likely come in the form of a four-hour online training course that the state is developing. Robinson said the health department plans to create a medical marijuana advisory board that will include the secretary of health, physician general, state police commissioner and others.
During the next six months, the state will put together a regulation process for growers and dispensaries.
"It's important to open it up to competitive bid," Robinson said.
The health department is conducting a population study over the next six months to determine how many patients suffer from the 17 conditions and where they live.
"We still need to figure out how much medical marijuana we're going to need," Robinson said.
Becky Dansky, a legislative analyst with Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project, estimated around 250,000 Pennsylvania patients could seek the drug for medical purposes.
Among them are Diana Briggs, whose 15-year-old son Ryan endures hundreds of seizures a day.
"We're very anxious to try it," she said. "I don't expect this to be a cure-all, but I believe it could help."
Briggs, of Export, Westmoreland County, is among about 30 families associated with Campaign for Compassion, a grass-roots organization dedicated to establishing legal medical marijuana in Pennsylvania.
"I don't fear this at all," she said. "Ryan takes other medications which have much worse side effects. Whether it helps him or not, I don't believe it will harm him in any way."
Despite the law's restrictions, Patrick Nightingale of the Pennsylvania Medical Cannabis Society said it's a starting point.
"Given how difficult it has been to get to this point, moving this legislation through Pennsylvania is a significant victory," he said. "It's a regulation-heavy bill in its current form, but it's been a bruising three years to get this passed."
Jahan Marcu, a Philadelphia-based molecular biologist who specializes in cannabis research and oversight, is disappointed that Pennsylvania prohibited the smoking of marijuana.
"It's easier for those who inhale to titrate their doses," he said. "Inhaled cannabis also bypasses the liver, and generally people using medical marijuana are already on other medications that are impacting their livers."
The health department has discretion to make changes to the law, and possibly allow smoking, after the advisory board issues a progress report within two years.
"What has happened in other states is these cannabis laws get passed and shown to be nonfunctional," Marcu said. "Then the laws evolve with the help of advocates."
Dr. Suzanne Labriola works in palliative care inside Allegheny Health Network's division of supportive care and geriatrics. She said she'll recommend medical marijuana to treat nausea and as an appetite stimulant for her patients with HIV and cancer.
"I'm really happy about this step because I think it is going to help some patients," she said. "This also opens the door for more research, and that's extremely important for us – to learn more about what we are using."
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: PA: With Medical Marijuana OK'd, Educating Doctors Among Top Priorities
Author: Ben Schmitt
Contact: TribLive
Photo Credit: Sean Stipp
Website: TribLive
"I'm wondering how this is going to be implemented," said Dr. Antoine Douaihy, medical director of addiction medicine services at Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic of UPMC. "It's kind of bizarre. If a patient comes and asks me about a prescription for medical marijuana, I wouldn't know where to start. How much can you prescribe? How are we as physicians going to apply this new law? Who is going to educate the physicians?"
A lot of those answers fall to one person: Dr. Loren Robinson, deputy secretary for health promotion and disease prevention at the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
She acknowledged some solutions could be two years away, anticipating it might take that long to set up a medical marijuana system with up to 150 designated state-regulated dispensaries. The state's new medical marijuana law, signed Sunday by Gov. Tom Wolf, takes effect in about 30 days.
"We think we have thought it out pretty well," Robinson told the Tribune-Review. "But I'm sure as we get started, it will be a learning process, for sure."
There are plenty of places to start, including erasing the notion that doctors will prescribe medical marijuana. They won't.
Doctors cannot legally write prescriptions because marijuana is currently listed under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning the Drug Enforcement Administration considers it to have no medical value. The DEA has said it will decide this year whether to reclassify pot, given the national groundswell of medical marijuana policies.
Under the new state law, patients – after consulting with doctors – can apply for a state-issued medical marijuana card if a doctor certifies that they have one of 17 qualified medical conditions, including epilepsy, autism and cancer. Robinson said the state plans to post certification forms online for patients to download and take to their doctors.
After patients obtain identification cards, they'll be able to purchase forms of medical marijuana on their own at dispensaries. Robinson said the state plans at least one dispensary per county with more in densely populated areas, such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The locations have not been determined. The health department will maintain a database of patients approved to use medical marijuana.
Even after dispensaries are operating in Pennsylvania, patients won't be able to smoke medical pot. The law prohibits dry, smokable marijuana. Patients can consume marijuana in the form of pills, oils and tinctures. Liquid forms of cannabis would also be available for vaporization.
"It's going to be challenging for the medical community to educate patients about when it may or may not be appropriate," said Dr. Todd Barron, medical director of WellSpan Neurosciences in Chambersburg. Barron has studied the use of cannabidiol, a compound in marijuana for treating epileptic patients. "There's a lot of hype surrounding this. The medical community is also going to need to be educated."
Education for doctors will most likely come in the form of a four-hour online training course that the state is developing. Robinson said the health department plans to create a medical marijuana advisory board that will include the secretary of health, physician general, state police commissioner and others.
During the next six months, the state will put together a regulation process for growers and dispensaries.
"It's important to open it up to competitive bid," Robinson said.
The health department is conducting a population study over the next six months to determine how many patients suffer from the 17 conditions and where they live.
"We still need to figure out how much medical marijuana we're going to need," Robinson said.
Becky Dansky, a legislative analyst with Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project, estimated around 250,000 Pennsylvania patients could seek the drug for medical purposes.
Among them are Diana Briggs, whose 15-year-old son Ryan endures hundreds of seizures a day.
"We're very anxious to try it," she said. "I don't expect this to be a cure-all, but I believe it could help."
Briggs, of Export, Westmoreland County, is among about 30 families associated with Campaign for Compassion, a grass-roots organization dedicated to establishing legal medical marijuana in Pennsylvania.
"I don't fear this at all," she said. "Ryan takes other medications which have much worse side effects. Whether it helps him or not, I don't believe it will harm him in any way."
Despite the law's restrictions, Patrick Nightingale of the Pennsylvania Medical Cannabis Society said it's a starting point.
"Given how difficult it has been to get to this point, moving this legislation through Pennsylvania is a significant victory," he said. "It's a regulation-heavy bill in its current form, but it's been a bruising three years to get this passed."
Jahan Marcu, a Philadelphia-based molecular biologist who specializes in cannabis research and oversight, is disappointed that Pennsylvania prohibited the smoking of marijuana.
"It's easier for those who inhale to titrate their doses," he said. "Inhaled cannabis also bypasses the liver, and generally people using medical marijuana are already on other medications that are impacting their livers."
The health department has discretion to make changes to the law, and possibly allow smoking, after the advisory board issues a progress report within two years.
"What has happened in other states is these cannabis laws get passed and shown to be nonfunctional," Marcu said. "Then the laws evolve with the help of advocates."
Dr. Suzanne Labriola works in palliative care inside Allegheny Health Network's division of supportive care and geriatrics. She said she'll recommend medical marijuana to treat nausea and as an appetite stimulant for her patients with HIV and cancer.
"I'm really happy about this step because I think it is going to help some patients," she said. "This also opens the door for more research, and that's extremely important for us – to learn more about what we are using."
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: PA: With Medical Marijuana OK'd, Educating Doctors Among Top Priorities
Author: Ben Schmitt
Contact: TribLive
Photo Credit: Sean Stipp
Website: TribLive
