Pubdate: Thu, 08 Aug 2013
Source: Corvallis Gazette-Times (OR)
Copyright: 2013 Lee Enterprises
Website: http://www.gazettetimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2976
Author: Ed Glick

MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT SHUNS CANNABIS 'UNTOUCHABLES'

Nearly 15 years after the passage of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act,
medical institutions and hospital groups continue to marginalize,
reject and ignore their patients' use of cannabis as a medicine.

Samaritan Health Services simply doesn't deal with them. Or, if they
do, they typically characterize cannabis use as a drug problem by
definition, subjecting patients to humiliating drug tests, or worse,
making them choose between cannabis and opiates.

This "choice" ignores not only the science of the endocannabinoid
signaling system in pain control, but violates the responsibility of
medical systems to foster trust and support.

Oregon Health & Science University has begun a cannabis referral
clinic, and many physicians who take the time to listen to their
patients understand that cannabis is a homeostatic modulator which
decreases the use of potent narcotics, with an exceptional safety
profile in comparison.

It is time for Samaritan Health Services to acknowledge what their
patients have known for years: that cannabis is medicine - and
integrate these thousands of people, rather than marginalize and shun
them.

Ed Glick, R.N. (Suspended/Retired), Monmouth
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MAP posted-by: Matt