cannabisnews.com: More Doctors Need To Join The Brave Few More Doctors Need To Join The Brave Few Posted by CN Staff on July 27, 2003 at 08:14:08 PT By Hilary McQuie Source: San Francisco Chronicle Every day people call me asking how to get legal. They suffer from many different ailments -- cancer, AIDS, arthritis, glaucoma, MS, chronic pain and others -- but the commonality is that they have all talked to their doctors about using marijuana to treat either their condition or its symptoms. And while their physicians have agreed that using marijuana might help, each of the doctors has declined to sign the recommendation necessary to getting access to a medical marijuana dispensary. So I refer them to one of the doctors courageous enough to stand behind patients. Unfortunately, there are only a few. It's true that since the passage of California's Compassionate Use Act of 1996, more than 1,500 physicians statewide have recommended medical cannabis to their patients. But over 80 percent of medical cannabis recommendations have come from 10 doctors. Many of the others that have made recommendations will only agree to do so if the patient has a terminal illness, despite the widespread understanding that marijuana is also effective in treating many nonterminal illnesses. Sadly, rather than recognize either the fear that inhibits many physicians or the courage of these brave few, the California Medical Board has looked at these statistics and brought nine of the 10 under investigation. But these are not simple "scrip docs" who are cashing in on Californians seeking prescriptions for recreational use. In fact, though over 30,000 Californians have obtained recommendations, doctors believe many more would benefit from the anti-nausea, anti-spasmodic, analgesic and appetite- increasing properties of marijuana. Over 110,000 Californians live with HIV/AIDS, over 125,000 will be diagnosed this year with cancer and over 10,000 have multiple sclerosis. Marijuana may well be part of the constellation of helpful treatments for all of them, but too many will never know, because -- eight years later -- they still do not have the safe and legal access the law guarantees them. One of the physicians working to implement the law is Dr. Tod Mikuriya, a leading authority on the medical use of cannabis. Since California's medical marijuana law was enacted in 1996, Dr. Mikuriya has approved the use of marijuana for 7,500 patients. And gotten himself investigated. Hilary McQuie is the political director of Americans for Safe Access -- http://www.safeaccessnow.org -- a medical marijuana patients' advocacy organization. Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/07/27/ED247641.DTL Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Author: Hilary McQuiePublished: Sunday, July 27, 2003 Copyright: 2003 San Francisco Chronicle - Page D - 5 Contact: letters sfchronicle.comWebsite: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/Related Articles & Web Sites:Americans For Safe Accesshttp://www.safeaccessnow.orgTod H. Mikuriya, M.D.http://www.mikuriya.com/Conant vs. Walters & Judge Kozinskihttp://freedomtoexhale.com//cw.htmThe Sick Shouldn't Be Victims of The Drug War http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16917.shtmlDecision To Prosecute Doctors is Violation http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16875.shtmlPsychiatrist's License May Be Revokedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16839.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #5 posted by Robbie on July 27, 2003 at 18:25:05 PT Way to go, Hilary! Congratulations to all the Americans for Safe Access members and their work!! [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Virgil on July 27, 2003 at 09:30:18 PT I put this article up at FreeRepublic I wanted to put Fred Gardner's article concerning GW Pharma up in the Smokey BackRoom when it came out but it did not have an online link to the Anderson Valley Advertiser. I did mention the Cnews link for it in comment before I copied and pasted comment3 as my comment on the above article.The link to the article at FreeRepublic is http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/953378/posts [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Virgil on July 27, 2003 at 08:52:16 PT This is an extremely powerful article It basically says intimidation by the federal government makes them ignore their responsibilities as a physician. We saw the demonizing process on Sadam and Iraq from the time it geared up and of course we left out our countries quilt in selling him weapons and our role in starting the two wars used to demonize him. And of course the only way to make the most beneficial plant on the planet illegal is to demonize, demonize, and demonize some more. Truth plays no part in the demonize strategy as anyone that has watched the movie "Reefer Madness" can attest. Even the title was a lie. No one went mad on reefer. It might have helped with brain conditions like hangovers, migraines, anxiety, ADD, bipolar, epilepsy but it surely did not make anyone go mad. Now today of course there really is Reefer Madness as we see the government insanity that has lead to the premature death of countless people and all but unlimited untreated pain while inflicting pain with imprisonment, stigmatization, and financial rape that comes with the inflated prices of prohibition.Once I read where someone said that cannabis was the most evolved species on the planet because it had sexed plants. It makes sense that this characteristic does show evolvement. The moralizers that want abstinance the only method taught to children cannot stand all that plant sex either.It was a powerful article that makes you wonder why the federal government is so vicious on the doctor-plant relationship. It also summmons up why when people can easily have a 1000 channels by satellite and can still complain that nothing is on, we do not see a panel of doctors on one show talking Reefer Sanity. My speculation on the Fed's attack on Cannabis Meds is that cannabis is the center pole of the great tent that stages the circus that is the WOSD.Cannabis causes mental illness. This lie of demonization has some truth in it, although it does not come from consumption. It comes from the prohibition laws like all the other problems associated with cannabis. Even smoking would be diminished if the government would get over their Reefer Madness. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 27, 2003 at 08:35:01 PT Can a Doctor Recommend St. John's Wort? Cannabis is a Medicinal Herb like St. John's Wort and many other Medicinal Herbs. Would a Doctor be threatened for recommending them? [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by charmed quark on July 27, 2003 at 08:24:20 PT This is why pot will have to be decriminalized For years, I felt that the medical issue should be kept separate from the decrim/legalization issue. I had nothing at all against decriminalization, it was smply a different issue from medical use.But the Federal government have forced these issues together to the point where I now believe only full decriminalizaton (allowing growing, possessing,and sharing) or legalization( allowig the state to sell it) will solve the medical problem.-Pete [ Post Comment ] Post Comment