I am Dr. ‘Bob’ Townsend and I run Denali Healthcare, a regional pain management clinic. I’m an advocate of medical marijuana and was one of many involved in the drafting of the ‘Bonafide Dr/Pt Relationship’ law that set the standards for medical marijuana certification in Michigan. While I have offices in Marquette and Gaylord, I have no business or practice interests in St. Ignace. I was asked to review and comment on this article by members of the MMMA Community as an expert on the subject.
Sheriff Strait makes a sweeping condemnation of medical marijuana saying that certifications were about making money rather than patient care. Taking into account he probably isn’t a doctor and has no medical training, I can say he has never sat a day with me and seen my patients. Or read the hundreds of followups I review every week where people talk about how cannabis changed their lives, how their cancers are in remission, and how they were able to stop narcotics. I am sure his experiences with the Medical Marihuana Act involved handcuffs, not actually listening to their stories or reviewing their charts.
He also didn’t mention anything about the 22 MILLION dollars his and other agencies in Michigan seized in civil forfeitures in 2012. Most of which involved drug cases and nearly all of those cases were related to marijuana. Keeping marijuana illegal is big business to law enforcement. It also helps to support lawyers, the courts and jails. A typical Section 8 defense is about 2 years long, costs around $15,000 to defend, and nearly as much more in prosecution, court and jail costs at taxpayer/defendant expense.
The law was clarified in 2012, and Standards put in Place for Certification
There were bad doctors, that is why in 2012 we developed the bonafide dr/pt relationship law. We put it in place to stop the ‘transient doctors’ in head shops, the low standard, no record clinics that were a minority of the good quality clinics that stepped up to certify patients whose primary doctors would not. And that is also why they had to reach back to the Butler-Jackson Appliance store case from 2011. Yes, they lifted the money quotes right from her summary suspension apparently forgot to mention the year it occurred, which was the sentence prior to the fees.
I am sure the ‘oversight’ about the year was not a deliberate attempt to mislead the readers. The fact that the ‘Bonafide Dr/Pt Relationship’ Act was the response to this incident and others was also not mentioned either. I am sure the fact the standards were fixed in 2012 was just another journalistic oversight and not meant to mislead the readers into thinking it was still the ‘wild west’ when it came to certifications.
Who supports Medical Marijuana?
In California, approximately 4% of the population has a medical marijuana card, and in Michigan, that number is about 1.5%. Bringing in immediate family and a wide circle of friends, this ‘marijuana interest group’ is maybe 25% of the population. Yet the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act was passed by over 63% of the voters in 2008, and passed in EVERY County in Michigan. Many of these voters were like my 75 year old mother- who like me has never touched the stuff.
We are literate people. We read the law, and we had a clear understanding of what we voted for. We expected that if we had a qualifying condition, we could go to our own doctors and simply get certified. Once certified, we would have access to cannabis, and the police and courts would leave us alone. We thought it might be a good alternative to pain medicine, and might help those traditional medicine fails- intractable seizures, fibromyalgia, cancer, etc.
The Voters were DUPED
Boy were all us voters duped. The law, which was designed to be very broad and give extensive protections to all but those clearly going outside its borders, has been fought tooth and nail by those whose economic interests or personal beliefs depend on the continued criminal status of cannabis. They seem quite upset that the law was broad, vague and designed to protect patients, as opposed to being very black and white and designed to aid their prosecutions of patients. Or drug crazed criminals using the Act to try and justify their use of marijuana to get high- or so they would like us to believe.
We were further duped into thinking we could just go to our doctors and get certified for a medical marijuana card. We didn’t count on our doctors’ employers mandating they not write a certification no matter how qualified the patients because there was a perceived ‘conflict’ between federal and state law. We didn’t count on doctors having no training in cannabis medicine, or simply not wanting to get involved with it for fear of being called a ‘pot doctor’. We didn’t count on being cut off our pain medications by ‘practice policy’ if we got a card. ‘Cannabis is a dangerous, addictive, gateway drug and I don’t want it in my practice, but I’ll be happy to refill your oxycontin and xanax.’.
Marijuana Enforcement
While I am not a lawyer, either is Sheriff Strait. He got to put out a ‘legal opinion’ so I guess I do as well. The Michigan Medical Marihuana Act is NOT in conflict with federal law. It simply says we will not prosecute patients for growing and using cannabis under Michigan Law, if they have a card. And by the way, in case you didn’t get the memo, the Federal Government has made its position clear. So long as the states are regulating marijuana, they will not interfere. So your ‘Federal Law’ point is moot. Actually, your ‘Federal Law’ point is just an excuse you are trying to use to continue your prosecution of legitimate medical marijuana patients, because you don’t like the law and it threatens your forfeiture money. But that is just my opinion on the ‘drug warrior’ mentality.
Education is Needed
What is needed is better education. We need physicians educated in cannabis medicine (there are thousands of excellent studies right on google). We need law enforcement educated on the Act, and remind them they don’t get to put their own spin on the laws they are charged with enforcing. We need patients better educated to stay safe and within the law. And finally, we need to change the attitudes of the courts to get them to stop putting cannabis in the same category as alcohol- a recreation substance, and put it where it belongs- as a medicine recommended by a doctor.
But above all, we need to stop the reefer madness fear mongering by those with a financial interest in keeping cannabis illegal and marijuana enforcement. Despite what law enforcement, prosecutors and some sitting judges seem to think, the main danger to society is not from cannabis, it is from the criminal justice system response to cannabis. Society does not want to make criminals out of people over a plant. Start listening to those that put you into office.
Dr. Bob
PS- Note on Drug Warriors.
I am sure that many of those that support the ‘War on Drugs’ truly believe drugs are evil. People are a product of their times and their belief system. In the eye of history, things that made perfect sense at the time they occurred seem completely outrageous when viewed years later. Will our children look at the narcotic tasks forces of today as we look at Big Jim McLain?
Here is a classic example, staring the ultimate red blooded American man of justice himself- the Duke….
U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee investigators Jim McLain and Mal Baxter attempt to break up a ring of Communist Party troublemakers in Hawaii (ignoring somewhat, as do their superiors in the Congress, that membership in the Communist Party was, at the time, legal in the U.S.)
The film has developed something of a cult following due to a perceivedly now-campy red scare theme. In some European markets the film was retitled as Marijuana and dispensed with the communist angle, making the villains drug dealers instead. This was achieved entirely through script changes and dubbing.
Marijuana enforcement is far more lucrative than Marijuana Certification
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