cannabisnews.com: Medical Marijuana Applications Spike
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Medical Marijuana Applications Spike
Posted by CN Staff on August 04, 2009 at 05:41:46 PT
By Peter Marcus, DDN Staff Writer
Source: Denver Daily News
Colorado -- State health officials are concerned about a massive increase in applications to the medical marijuana registry and are evaluating ways to increase oversight.The health department says it is receiving nearly 2,000 new applications each month — up 5,616 between July 2008 and June 30 — more than doubling the registry over the past three months. As of June, the health department had received 8,918 applications — 4,282 of those applications were received between April and June.
Officials are concerned that doctors are abusing their professional powers in authorizing the applications. They say the majority of the applications are coming from “young men” with chronic pain, suggesting that young recreational pot smokers are abusing the system with the help of corrupt doctors.“We are evaluating strategies that might allow us to assure that physicians documenting a diagnosis of chronic or severe pain are doing so within the standards of medical care,” said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ned Calonge. Disingenuous?But medical marijuana advocates are calling health officials “disingenuous,” pointing out that they have opposed the medical marijuana registry since 2000 when Colorado voters backed an initiative allowing for medical marijuana.“I find this frustrating because this health department has a history of using disingenuous tactics in its attempt to undermine medical marijuana laws,” said Brian Vicente, an attorney and executive director of medical marijuana advocacy group Sensible Colorado.The health department on two separate occasions attempted to limit medical marijuana caregivers to five patients. But Sensible Colorado filed a lawsuit in 2007, which was upheld by District Judge Larry Naves who ruled that the state had imposed the new rules illegally by not holding public hearings, and that the state had made a “capricious decision” to enact the rules.A public hearing was held last month by the Board of Health to examine a similar change to medical marijuana rules. But the Board narrowly rejected the new rules by a vote of 5-4. Unfinished Business? Medical marijuana advocates thought they were in the clear following the public hearing, but it appears health officials are not done looking for ways to limit the registry. This time, however, they have their eyes set on doctors authorizing the applications, as opposed to caregivers who supply the patients.Mark Salley, spokesman for the health department, said it is too premature to discuss strategies being discussed to increase oversight. But he added that there is reason to be concerned.“When we have a situation — such as the one that was testified to at the Board meeting, when a single doctor had signed up 200 patients in a single day for the marijuana registry — it makes us be concerned about potential abuse of the registry,” he said. Faulty Statistics Cited Health officials stated at the public hearing last month that the average age of medical marijuana patients is 24 years old. But when asked by board members for actual data because there was conflicting statistics, the evidence was unavailable.Vicente says his organization has examined the data and has found the average age of medical marijuana patients to be 41 years old.“It’s unbelievable, these people are full of this,” said Vicente. “We were trying to get that, we were shocked, we were like, ‘How could it possibly have dropped to 24?’ Statistically that was crazy, and ultimately it was untrue, it was a falsehood furthered by the health department.”Health officials said their false testimony was the result of a “computer error.”Statistics released by the health department indicate that from July 2008 through June, 1,792 registry cards were issued to men under age 30, of which 89 percent had the diagnosis of severe pain. They say the “young males” represent 22 percent of all applications received during that time. During the last six months of 2008 there was an average of 70 applications per month for men under age 30 with severe pain; in May there were 264 such applications; and in June there were 364. Attempt To Limit Registry? Vicente says he is concerned that health officials are still attempting to limit the registry, which would lead to patients struggling to find care. He points out that more than 900 doctors have written authorizations for medical marijuana.“It’s Sensible Colorado’s belief that the vast majority of these recommendations are valid,” said Vicente. “Hopefully (health officials) won’t take any action that would lead to less people using the program and infringe on the doctor-patient relationship in any way.”Note: Officials say docs may be abusing power, but do officials just want to limit registry?Source: Denver Daily News (CO)Author: Peter Marcus, DDN Staff WriterPublished: Tuesday, August 4, 2009 Copyright: 2009 Denver Daily NewsContact: editor thedenverdailynews.comURL: http://drugsense.org/url/ErQVx2uRWebsite: http://www.thedenverdailynews.com/Related Articles:New Pot Rules Torchedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread24935.shtmlHealth Board Nixes Change To Colorado Pot Usehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread24934.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by museman on August 04, 2009 at 09:08:44 PT
health vs money and power
I'm not going to quote any of the many revelative statements that reveal the ignorance of public officials and institutional 'employees' (totally programmed slaves) and their obvious real motivations.No I'm going to talk about pain.Can you measure my pain? Can I measure yours? Is there some device we can plug in that states the 'acceptable' levels of pain, as well as the unacceptable ones? Can that device (that does not, and never has existed -except in the arbitrary 'official authority' of some 'professional' minds) read my pain?A lifetime of experience with pain, and the established 'medical community's' narrow, insensitive approach to dealing with it (pharmaceuticals) has taught me that I have to find my own way to deal with my pain, especially the real intense pain I occasionally have from my spinal disentegration (thanks to a denying V.A. and USN). The 'emergency room' and 'doctors' all treated me like I was play acting 'to get drugs.' They can't tell me what I am feeling, no matter how much 'medical information' they have. My mechanic is more likely to understand my pain than a doctor.And of course, everyone in the status-quo programming so diligently shoved down their throats in 'academia' believes in what the TV commercials tell them about this drug, and that drug, and that nobody has pain until they are old or something. Up until just recently, it was a prevailing assumption amongst the 'medical community' that newborn babies 'can't really feel pain.' So they treated them coldly, like auto mechanics, sticking needles in them, putting them naked on cold steel scales, and doing things like circumcision. This may seem like a 'so what' to those who have had their humanity all but bred out of them by their worhip of the status quo, but to a compassionate person, this is criminal. Where's a real cop when you need one? (busting a 'young man' for self medicating)I would like to say that "I never felt any major pain, until I was over 40." But that is as riduculous as somebody telling me I didn't feel it.Pain is as much a part of our life and reality as pleasure. In fact there is some research that states that the difference is sometimes hard to pin down. Why else are there some people who actually enjoy pain? And it is well documented (even though there is a campaign of ignorance to the contrary) that most, if not all of the power/authority addicts who rule the world really enjoy the pain of others.These claimants to authority need to be severely chastized and put in their place (like a farm where they are forced to learn to touch the earth, and how to be human). But as long as the people continue to believe in the status quo, and all the false authority being ladled out as if we asked for it somehow, and spend their lives laboring as a cog in a destructive wheel, change will "be headed off at the pass" by the posse of illegitimate rule.FREE CANNABIS FOR EVERYONE
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on August 04, 2009 at 05:59:32 PT
Police Say Church Fest Was a Drug Fest
August 3, 2009URL: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09215/988247-55.stm
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