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Cannabis M.D.
Posted by CN Staff on October 26, 2005 at 08:04:13 PT
By Peter Larsen, The Orange County Register
Source: Orange County Register
Lake Forest -- The two skater dudes slouched into the doctor's office, tattooed, pierced and looking for medical marijuana. I've got insomnia, doc - and pot helps me sleep, Skater No. 1 told Philip A. Denney. But with no medical records to back up his claim - no credible medical history at all - the answer he got was no. Expecting much the same from Skater No. 2, Denney stepped into the next examination room and asked him why he wanted a doctor's approval to use marijuana.
I've got aggressive, metastatic bone cancer - I might not live much longer, the young man told Denney. And after examining the man and his medical records, Denney wrote him the letter he sought. "They looked so similar that I was prepared and had it in my mind that they wouldn't qualify," says Denney, who with a business partner operates offices dedicated solely to medical marijuana in Lake Forest, Redding and Sacramento. "And I was just floored when I did the exam. Because where his friend was in no way qualified, he was absolutely qualified. I was looking at a dead man." When California voters endorsed marijuana as medicine in 1996, Denney offered only the silent support of his ballot to the controversial law. "Like most physicians, I didn't see any need to get involved and put my wallet at risk," he says. He believed in the law. And he believed that cannabis - his favored term - held promise for many patients. But the federal government and the state medical board warned doctors to be very careful in how they implemented the new law, threatening their licenses if they stumbled. Still, Denney, 57, couldn't shake the feeling that he ought to be involved. Snipped:Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/cannabismd.htmSource: Orange County Register, The (CA)Author: Peter Larsen, The Orange County Register Published: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 Copyright: 2005 The Orange County RegisterContact: letters ocregister.comWebsite: http://www.ocregister.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Medicinal Cannabis Research Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/research.htmMedical-Marijuana Evaluators Are In http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18330.shtmlDoctors Tread a Thin Line on Marijuana Advicehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17681.shtml
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