Turned Down In Colorado

[KermitTheHermit]

Even though I have a long-standing chronic pain condition with doctor's records to back it up, my doc won't write me a recommendation unless I go through a course of treatment with prescription muscle relaxants and pain killers, and prove that they that they have intolerable side effects or aren't effective. He's not a bad doc, just seems to be afraid of the legal implications.

This is a great example what's wrong with the whole system as it is. I guess if I make myself ill with prescriptions, I might get a recommendation.

I could go chase around and find a doc to write me a pass, but fuck it, I don't have any tolerance for getting jerked around. I flew under the radar for years, no problems. I'll be back to it soon enough.

 

[Sam the Caveman]

I'd say you need to find a doc that isn't afraid to make a recommendation and is familiar with cannabis dosages comparable with your prescription meds. It sound like that doc hasn't done it before and doesn't know anything about it. If your growing your own and need more than an ounce a week, you need special recommendations from your doctor to make it legal. The law is 2 ounces of usable product per person, anything more is illegal unless a specific amount over 2 ounces is recommended by a doctor. If you grow perpetual style harvesting a 2 ounce plant every 2 weeks, you'll be legal.

But you need to ask around or do some online research to find the right doctor. Good Luck.

 

[KermitTheHermit]

^^^ Yeah, I'm familiar with the 6-3-2 provisions in the law. We never even got to that level of detail.

When I posted that message I was still kind of shocked at his interpretation, that he would only recommend MJ as a last resort if prescription drugs wouldn't work for me or if they made me sick. Prescriptions are exactly what I'm trying to avoid.

He was ready to write me a script for some nasty stuff, Gabapentin, for chronic pain. Bad stuff - requires a regimen to ramp up the dose and maintain it daily, with warnings about withdrawal if you stop taking it suddenly. It also has "off-label" uses for psychiatric disorders - talk about side effects!

I explained again that this is a chronic problem, and asked whether this was something I should take long-term. He then scratched that out, and wrote a script for a muscle relaxant for spasms, which is only an occasional problem that I have.

He definitely didn't seem ready to have this discussion, even though he knew that was the reason that I made the appointment in the first place. All in all, it was a strange appointment.

Anyway, I'll think on it a bit, see what I can find out about any other docs in my neck of the woods.

 

[NorCalFor20]

you need to find a medical marijuana doctor, the doctor your seeing is being paied to assign you assorted pharmacuticals

 

[quadracer]

It always amazes me that a doctor is willing to prescribe any type of heavy addicting opiates, but unwilling to write a recommendation for marijuana.

Educating doctors is really important as there are many ignorant, uncompassionate doctors out there.

 

[Juice_Box]

DUDE!
there are ton's of docs at your disposal here in colorado. get your records and $175 and go get your card stat.

 

[K.J]

It's very simple. Take your medical records and make an appointment with THCF (http://thc-foundation.com/colorado/). It sounds to me like a no brainer with your condition. Your current doc might not write one out of fear, but I can almost guarantee that THCF doctors will, based on what little you've said of your condition.

 

[movingtocally]

It always amazes me that a doctor is willing to prescribe any type of heavy addicting opiates, but unwilling to write a recommendation for marijuana.

Educating doctors is really important as there are many ignorant, uncompassionate doctors out there.

I don't mean to derail the thread, but the reason docs prescribe certain opiates is because they have clinical trials backing them. Cannabis doesn't. We can scream all we want about government manipulation of resources etc., but the reality is that cannabis is a very mixed bag in terms of research.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

I don't mean to derail the thread, but the reason docs prescribe certain opiates is because they have clinical trials backing them. Cannabis doesn't. We can scream all we want about government manipulation of resources etc., but the reality is that cannabis is a very mixed bag in terms of research.

Exactly.... the doctors are uneducated on the subject so pick one that isn't. It took me a year to save up the money to pay for mine but I got it.

 

[deepchunk]

im with caveman on this find one that has more compassion

 

[Marshmello]

I don't mean to derail the thread, but the reason docs prescribe certain opiates is because they have clinical trials backing them. Cannabis doesn't. We can scream all we want about government manipulation of resources etc., but the reality is that cannabis is a very mixed bag in terms of research.

Convenient that you left out how much that Doc gets from the pharma's for pimping out their shit.
.....and if you want to talk about MMJ Research, take a bite of this:

OLE MISS HAS MONOPOLY ON MARIJUANA RESEARCH

When the federal Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a request for proposals, seeking competitive applications for the production, analysis and distribution of "marijuana cigarettes," the request might have seemed a bit unusual to those unfamiliar with Washington's dance around cannabis research. The federal government, after all, is not widely known to support marijuana cultivation.

But those in the know just shrugged. The department has issued similar requests every few years to select a contractor to conduct government-approved marijuana research, and with depressing regularity it has then awarded an exclusive contract to the University of Mississippi. For 40 years now, Washington has sought such "competitive applications" and Mississippi "wins" every time.

This rigged contest has successfully thwarted meaningful academic inquiry into marijuana's medicinal value, without which the debate over its efficacy is bound to endure. Other studies -- not conducted by the University of Mississippi -- have suggested that marijuana has therapeutic value. But because the United States has discouraged such research and made it legally difficult to undertake, these studies have been limited in scope. What's missing is the broad research analyzing the cultivation and properties of different strains and their effects on a variety of illnesses. For example, a strain of cannabis that is most effective with glaucoma may not be the same strain best suited to cancer patients.

Even if the university were running a perfect program, one institution cannot fulfill the country's research needs. In February 2007, when Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner recommended that the Drug Enforcement Administration grant a license to cultivate marijuana for research purposes to a botanist at the University of Massachusetts, she said she had concluded that the supply of marijuana from the University of Mississippi program was of insufficient quality and quantity for research purposes.

The deadline for this latest round of applications is Oct. 9. The government should take the opportunity to break the University of Mississippi's monopoly and choose a different institution. That step alone would be a sign that the Obama administration will prioritize science over politics. Merely shifting the contract from one institution to another, however, won't change the status quo.

- -- Los Angeles Times editorial

Sat, 5 Sep 2009
Monterey County Herald
2009 Monterey County Herald
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.montereyherald.com/

 

[Chiefsmokingbud]

I've been on Neurontin aka Gapapentin for awhile now and it actually does help with some pain........never had any saide effects you mention but everyone is different. If you do get your card anyway, don't plan on going back to your doctor unless you plan on telling him you got your card anyway despite his sorry recomendation.

 

[nomaad]

I don't mean to derail the thread, but the reason docs prescribe certain opiates is because they have clinical trials backing them. Cannabis doesn't. We can scream all we want about government manipulation of resources etc., but the reality is that cannabis is a very mixed bag in terms of research.

Here is the problem. I come from a family of MDs and I have watched the evolution as my father left the field and my brother entered it. When my dad became a Dr it was about healing. Now its about pharmaceuticals...

Granted, the technology of medicine and its capabilities have increased, but the ethical practice of DOING WHAT IS RIGHT BY THE PATIENT has suffered a great deal over this same generation.

Yeah yeah... clinical trials schmimical schmiles... Clinical trials are marketing-speak for the self-serving FDA mandated, often falsified, never peer reviewed bullshit trials that are performed by the companies themselves. The FDA itself is run by former corporate officers of Pharmcorps and so the mandate is all about some bullshit to begin with. I understand that marijuana LACKS in research, but most meds are backed by bullshit research.

In my book several recorded centuries of statistics and folklore assert that marijuana use is almost never life-threatening. You can make holes in your stomach with ibuprofen... kill yourself with enough tylenol... but you cannot commit suicide or cause irreparable damage with marijuana in one instance of over-use (unless you chocke on a huge nug that has been shoved down your throat.) Do you really need clinical trials to tell you that its safe? Please.

And what about the overperscription, mixing of perscriptions, off-label uses of drugs...? Jesus its scary what they have some people (kids!!!) on these days... they have no clinical trials that tell you what will happen when you combine some of these drugs...and the results of such human-guineapig trials are often horrific. The fundamental tennet of the hypocratic oath is something like "at the very least, do no harm"... i mean... gimme a fucking break.

If a patient tells their physician that ganja alleviates their suffering, the physician has the moral and ethical obligation to help them acquire and administer the medicine.

 

[KermitTheHermit]

Thanks for all the comments. I am regrouping after my initial disbelief at this weird scenario. There seem to be plenty of resources in the state now, so I think I can get through this successfully.

 

[KermitTheHermit]

It only gets better...

Rewind a few weeks. The brand new dispensary in town runs an ad for a clinic...bring your records and $200, doc will write a recommendation. I call the nice lady at the dispensary. She asks who my doc is, I tell her, she says just go see him, he'll take care of you.

So I saw him, with the results reported above.

I stopped by to see her today and explained the entire situation. She seemed a bit disturbed; gave me a card for another doc that does clinics in the area.

I told her I'd just come to her clinic. She tells me that won't work since the doctor is THE SAME ONE WHO TURNED ME DOWN...MY DOCTOR, WHO I'VE BEEN WITH FOR YEARS AND WANTS ME TO TAKE PRESCRIPTION MEDS AND NARCOTICS INSTEAD OF MJ! WHO IS GOING TO SIT IN A STOREFRONT AND WRITE OUT RECOMMENDATIONS TO PATIENTS HE'S NEVER SEEN BEFORE, FOR $200 A POP!

Maybe he'll just recommend narcotics instead.

She's not happy, I'm not happy...I don't think doc will be happy after she calls him.

I thought of a new oxymoron..."medical ethics"!

 

[Buddle]

THAT is BULLSHIT!!!! I am sorry for everything you are going through Kermit.I'd confront him with it myself.ASAP..man that irks me..

 

[KermitTheHermit]

It ain't over Buddle...your avi reminds me..."fuck with the bull, ya get the horn!"

Life in a small town can be hard at times...word gets around. Like it or not, there's a whole new industry springing up around MMJ, and you're only as good as your reputation.

 

[Kola Radical]

I'm tellin' ya... modern medical pinheads will kill you dead and go play golf...

You need Alternative Medicine. East / West medicine is the only way to go.

I bet you have one in your city... look it up.

In Denver it's the East West Clinic by the Tech Center. Nothing I can say can do it justice, but my Dr. signed my rec with a smile on his face and gave me what little info he had on mmj. This is not a mmj factory and they were all new on it along with me, but one thing is for sure... they will freak when I go back for my card renewal. Maybe they won't renew me since my symptoms have improved so much?

Who cares... I do what I want.

It would be a lot easier if we just legalized it.

 

[KermitTheHermit]

I'm tellin; ya... modern medical pinheads will kill you dead and go play golf...

...that there is the truth.

No worries...I'll get it done.

 

[KermitTheHermit]

Waiting to hear back from a MMJ doc; I'll see if there's an easy way to get from here to there.

Seems the problem with my GP is that I quit seeing my orthopedic specialist a few years ago, since I had no progress after two and a half years of treatment. I've been getting by on ibuprofen since then, now I can't tolerate enough of it to knock the pain down.

I don't have a current record of treatment, which the law seems to call for. It doesn't say specifically what the current treatment regimen has to be; my GP interprets it that MMJ can only be recommended if pharmacueticals aren't an option.

Weird...I guess I can lay my hands on some heavy prescription drugs. This GP is an advocate of narcotics...any suggestions?

In the end, it'll be done.