The current system of medical marijuana distribution is a form of anarchy that is quickly becoming a cover for recreational abuse. Now, to add to the growing disaster, some doctors are writing letters for teenagers to get marijuana for regular consumption as a “treatment” for ADHD. From the story:
Several Bay Area doctors who recommend medical marijuana for their patients said in recent interviews that their client base had expanded to include teenagers with psychiatric conditions including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. “It’s not everybody’s medicine, but for some, it can make a profound difference,” said Valerie Corral, a founder of the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana, a patients’ collective in Santa Cruz that has two dozen minors as registered clients.
Because California does not require doctors to report cases involving medical marijuana, no reliable data exist for how many minors have been authorized to receive it. But Dr. Jean Talleyrand, who founded MediCann, a network in Oakland of 20 clinics who authorize patients to use the drug, said his staff members had treated as many as 50 patients ages 14 to 18 who had A.D.H.D.
Bay Area doctors have been at the forefront of the fierce debate about medical marijuana, winning tolerance for people with grave illnesses like terminal cancer and AIDS. Yet as these doctors use their discretion more liberally, such support — even here — may be harder to muster, especially when it comes to using marijuana to treat adolescents with A.D.H.D. “How many ways can one say ‘one of the worst ideas of all time?’ ” asked Stephen Hinshaw, the chairman of the psychology department at the University of California, Berkeley. He cited studies showing that tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, disrupts attention, memory and concentration — functions already compromised in people with the attention-deficit disorder.
Well, duh. This is just unethical drug pushing to underage children. Federal law enforcement should shut this practice down now. But don’t count on it: Our president has already violated his oath of office by promising not to enforce federal laws against marijuana when it is used for medicinal purposes in states where it is legal. Why should we be surprised that we now see stories such as this? Expediency reigns when important legal principles are thrown to the wind.
This story also proves my repeatedly made point that the current medical marijuana distribution system is a nightmare. Marijuana has clear medical uses, but the answer, as I wrote a few years ago in the S.F. Chronicle, is to treat it as other intoxicating drugs that have medicinal uses; change its status in the Controlled Substances Act to Schedule 2 or 3. That would permit studies to be carried out to determine which maladies benefit from cannibis and for it to be distributed in an orderly and controlled fashion through pharmacies.
In the meantime, if the proponents of medical marijuana continue to act this irresponsibly, at some point the whole thing could well blow up in their faces.
November 22nd, 2009 | 8:31 pm
We should just keep prescribing Ritalin and other amphetamines to kids with A.D.H.D. Much better to give them speed than a plant.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:21 pm
I think we over drug kids. Adding MJ isn’t a help, it’s a further hurt.
November 22nd, 2009 | 9:17 pm
Cannabis ameliorated my own ADHD as a teenager as a “side-effect” of my recreational use. I began daily use in 1968 just after barely graduating high school with poor grades, and went on to graduate second in my electronics engineering tech [night] school class while holding down full-time employment.
“One of the worst ideas of all time?” The prohibition of Cannabis.
-Richard Steeb, San Jose California
November 22nd, 2009 | 11:13 pm
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November 23rd, 2009 | 12:47 am
marijuana isnt a further hurt wesley smith when its going to replace giving our kids amphetimine salts which are highly addicting, and can create a dependancy for “normal” brain function for the rest of their life. did i mention thats a derivative from meth? yea. I would much rather see marijuana replace that.
November 23rd, 2009 | 12:49 am
i would like to actually see this comment go through as you appear to be the writer and possibly the moderator for this column. not posting it would be awfully biased.
November 23rd, 2009 | 7:03 am
All designed to circumvent U.S. laws regulating the sale of controlled substances for recreational use. A death spiral for the U.S. in terms of productivity, every empire in history that did not curb that market was swept up in the economic craze surrounding it and destroyed that is why it is illegal in the first place. Read them admit the real truth in today’s Reuters out of L.A.;
Another dispensary manager admitted most of his clients just want to get high. He said they prefer the quality and prices of his products to those on the street.
“Ninety percent of people that come in have been smoking their whole lives,” said the 26-year-old, giving his name as Alex. “I wouldn’t be in business if it wasn’t for them.”
“I’d say 1 percent of my clients have a genuine hospital note. The other 99 percent come from these doctors who set up offices to give marijuana prescriptions all day,” he added.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:26 am
Johnny Law: When people ask me why I oppose full legalization of drugs, I say, “In a word, China.” The Western powers were able to colonize a much larger country half way around the world because the society was intentionally weakened by the pushing of opium.
November 23rd, 2009 | 10:12 am
I agree with you Wesley. Marijuana may reduce the hyper problem but it causes loss of concentration and it can also cause or aggravate depression. It then creates chemical dependence on marijuana which has other side effects. I know that high school students who get medical marijuana legally also have been selling it to other students, so it is a big loophole to recreational use. Another article suggested that marijuana could relieve autism, so we are talking not just adolescents but children!
November 23rd, 2009 | 10:24 am
Marijuana?! [Unacceptable comment deleted]. Tsk tsk. Take away the cannabis from these kids and give them back their AMPHETAMINES. Everyone knows meth helps hyperactive kids.
November 23rd, 2009 | 10:59 am
And why shouldn’t the least-toxic remedy be the FIRST one tried? Seems only logical to this well-experienced cannabis consumer…
http://www.google.com/search?q=jeffrey's+journey
for your edification
November 23rd, 2009 | 12:44 pm
Simple choice.
You can argue the pro and con points all day long and you will still be left with the fact that either the drug gangs or the gov’t will distribute cannabis. You can talk about messages, children, age appropriate access, the law is the law, what part about illegal don’t you understand, addiction, family problems, etc…but the bottom line is that cannabis will be distributed…either by the drug gangs or the gov’t…but someone will distribute cannabis. People want it. That’s how cannabis became the largest cash crop in 14 states. All under the noses of the police, dea, cia, border patrol, and (insert laugh here) GED educated homeland security personnel (seriously, that’s all they require…a GED, scary).
Like the system currently in place? Then the drug gangs get to distribute. Want something different? Then the gov’t gets to distribute. Cannabis will be distributed. Who do you want to do it? I say keep the drug gangs out, legalize, regulate, and collect taxes.
See? Simple.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I specifically said I DIDN’T like the way things currently are, didn’t I? I said reclassify and prescribe. But not this anarchy.
November 23rd, 2009 | 1:39 pm
The same criminal street dealers who sell marijuana often also sell prescription drugs used for treatment of ADD, ADHD, etc. We have GOT to find a way to drive a wedge between our kids and the drug dealing criminals.
Licensing, taxing, and regulating marijuana will put the criminal drug dealers out of business and protect our children. Regulate the marijuana business, medical or otherwise. While we’re at it, let’s implement a personal cultivation permit. Limit the number of plants, and put a fee on it to cover administrative costs, something like a fishing license, with maybe a little extra for education or fixing the roads.
How about $100 per year for a permit to cultivate a dozen plants? It’s a win-win
November 23rd, 2009 | 2:29 pm
If marijuana really does have medicinal effects, then put it in an oral form and distribute it like a pharmaceutical, with dosages, etc. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to go over very will with the advocates for complete unmitigated legalization of marijuana. That tells me something about the real motives, which probably aren’t really medicinal.
November 23rd, 2009 | 4:31 pm
I agree that marijuana should be legal for certain medical uses but that it needs to be federally regulated and sold by pharmacies.
A very slippery slope has been spotted in Portland, OR where a cannabis cafe was recently opened. MMJ users with a license can go there to smoke it with other licensed users. Now why on earth do they need to go to a cafe to use their ‘medication’? How many diabetics do you know that want a cafe where they can go to inject their insulin and socialize?
November 23rd, 2009 | 5:56 pm
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November 23rd, 2009 | 8:28 pm
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November 23rd, 2009 | 10:48 pm
$2,713.15 will get your Marinol prescription filled, 100ea. 10mg caps. One gram THC, in sesame oil so you can’t smoke it.
$15 a gram is about what I pay for high-grade Cannabis buds at the dispensary, often assayed at upward of 20% THC with the additional benefit of some CBD, which mitigates the psychoactivity of pure THC.
Does THAT tell you, Heather, anything about motives? Do the MATH, please.
Richard Steeb, San Jose California
November 24th, 2009 | 10:33 am
State should have the RIGHT to determine their own law as afforded by the Constitution.
So Wesley your all for state abortion rights that oppose the Federal law, but not when it doesn’t suit your own personal views.
Why the double standard?
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
November 24th, 2009 at 11:09 am
What double standard? State it.
November 24th, 2009 | 11:27 am
Shades of “Reefer Madness.” Anybody around here old enough to remember that famous movie, in which pot gets people so hyperactive they commit murder — instead of lying there getting quietly stoned? Did we learn nothing from Prohibition? Tax marijuana and make it available, same as alcohol. I wonder how many people here can honestly say they never, ever tried pot — not even one small joint (excepting Wesley, of course).
November 24th, 2009 | 3:40 pm
What double standard? State it.
The part where states can choose to make abortion procedures illegal in contradiction to allowing to non prosecution of marijuana sellers…
was that so obfuscated…?
or do you not support states rights to chip away at abortion law?
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
November 24th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
I have never written anything about states making abortion illegal. Can’t be done. Roe v Wade. In fact, that is consistent with a federal marijuana enforcement, now that you mention it. So, again, where have I ever had a double standard?
November 24th, 2009 | 4:15 pm
to allowing *the* non prosecution of marijuana sellers…
November 25th, 2009 | 12:46 am
Thanks for sharing this disturbing story with your readers, Wesley. I fully agree with you.
I recently heard that LA has more “Medical Marijuana” dispensaries than it has Starbucks. Hard to imagine there’s that much medical need. Sounds to me like some cowboy docs hard-up for easy money milking the system for all it’s worth.
It would be a shame if people who legitimately benefit from medical marijuana lose out because of this abuse.
The larger picture regarding ADHD, however, is quite complex. In short, the SF Bay Area is the Third World when it comes to knowledgeable ADHD treatment. And the rest of the state isn’t much better.
As a volunteer here in the ADHD community for almost ten years, I am grateful for the savvy few prescribing physicians. If medication seems warranted, they carefully choose from among medications that treat ADHD and its commonly co-existing conditions such as anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders. They know how to help the patient counter any negative side effects. And they also offer integrative treatment in the form of CBT, dietary and exercise guidance, amino acid supplementation, etc.
Then there are the rest. If I hadn’t heard the horror stories – by the hundreds, if not thousands, by now – I wouldn’t believe them myself.
Incompetent or lazy physicians need to stop blaming poor treatment outcome on medications or patients and instead examine their own deficits. As much as the Scientologists, these physicians have contributed mightily to the current “medication backlash,” with so many people having decided (rightly so) that enduring medication side effects is worse than enduring symptoms.
If a physician’s idea of ADHD treatment is carelessly handing out highly problematic old-formulation stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin (let alone generics), no wonder some unthinking MDs on the fringe see no alternative but marijuana. They might even convince themselves they are helping their patients.
The fact is, for many people with ADHD stimulant medications — properly chosen and titrated — are a godsend. They level the playing field in life, giving them the opportunities that other people without ADHD enjoy. They increase initiation, motivation, and focus — and often decrease the anxiety that leads so many people with untreated (or poorly treated) ADHD to get addicted to pot.
And it’s shameful for these negligent docs to pander to patient vulnerabilities and ignorance about proper ADHD treatment, risking long-term memory deficits, even further loss of motivation and initiation, and possibly risking DNA damage to unborn children.
Definitely we need more scientific study, especially given the super-potency of today’s marijuana.
We know about marijuana’s detrimental cognitive side effects as well as the epigenetic risks of schizophrenia. And we have some evidence of impairment to immune system, sperm, eggs, and other health factors.
We cannot rely on these marijuana-pushing crackpot MDs — most likely with “issues” of their own and little scientific understanding of bodily systems — to navigate these waters for us. Especially when extremely effective and safe evidence-based strategies exist!
I highly respect NIDA director Nora Volkow as a scientist and person of uncommon good sense and compassion. If she’s worried about marijuana, I am, too.
Gina Pera, author
Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?
Stopping the Roller Coaster When Someone You Love Has Attention Deficit Disorder
December 2nd, 2009 | 2:50 pm
” I think they will move toward passing the Freedom of Choice Act that would obliterate state regulation of abortion, such as it is.”
Wesley you didnt pen this for the Discovery Institute? Doesn’t this advocate State rights in the issue of abortion law?
You’re arguing for maintaining states rights to regulate abortion, or is it that you are supporting the Freedom of Choice Act?
but in the case of marijuana in CA your against the state curbing its prosecution because of Federal law…
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