MMJ: Doc's With a Good Form

With regard to doctor’s recommendations, there is a prevailing concept that one must go to a “pot doc” and pay good money for a yearly service. In reality, there is a form (9044) published by the state Department of Public Health that may be utilized by any licensed California doctor for free. It has no end-date built in. Second, there is a perception that a first-time visit to a “pot shop” means being showered with gifts. As if one could walk into a CVS and expect a prize for showing up. The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors waved a copy of the News & Review and cited the giveaways of “narcotics” as a nuisance that encouraged 18-year-olds to get an easy “pot doc” recommendation and tour the “pot clubs” in groups like trick-or-treaters, so the supervisors banned all dispensing. This “try it, you’ll like it” vision of promotion annoys and invigorates the opposition. What do you think? - Matt

Good call on that form. I had no idea the state Deparment of Health had a form (www.cdph.ca.gov/pubsforms/forms/CtrldForms/cdph9044.pdf) for regular doctors. That’s pretty cool. Perhaps more people will be willing to talk to their general practitioner about cannabis, or at least show them the form and hope they get the hint. Still, some “regular” docs are reluctant to recommend marijuana, so seeing a doctor that specializes in cannabis as a treatment couldn’t hurt. And while you’re technically correct when you say medical cannabis recommendations don’t expire, the law expects you to be “under a doctor’s care,” presumably because maybe you will get better and not need the evil, pernicious Schedule 1 narcotic known as marijuana.

To your second point: Prohibitionists gonna prohibit. Giving away medicine isn’t just a weed thing. I could talk a doctor into giving me a few Viagra pills with no problem, and Viagra is way more of a recreational drug than pot will ever be. Pharmaceutical companies give away billions of dollars in prescription medicine every year; no one is trying to shut down the local Walgreens. Some people just don’t like the idea of marijuana. The whole “Clubs are giving away weed to 18-year-olds” argument is just a variation on the “But what about the children?” form of concern trolling. Ignore them. Better yet, vote in better supervisors.