Enough Medical Marijuana Already

Okay, so even I'm sick of listening to me.  Here in Maryland, there were hearings on 3 proposed Medical Marijuana bills on Friday and Clink and I had an op ed piece in the Baltimore Sun opposing "medical" marijuana.   The governor announced he would veto any Medical Marijuana legislation that passed the Assembly, and while Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene was instrumental in making recommendations for one of the bills, apparently he testified against his own bill.  So this leaves me as the only person in Maryland who is still talking about Medical Marijuana.  But I am-- I felt like I needed to address those comments on the Sun paper, and I'm going to do so over on our weekly CPN Shrink Rap News blog.  It should appear sometime on 3/15/12 around noon, editor permitting. [Here is the link. ~Roy]

I'll shut up now,  I promise, but I wanted to create this space for anyone who'd rather comment here.   

[other posts on marijuana]

Shrink Rapper Updates

I'm not feeling quite so popular today.  Over on the Baltimore Sun's website, Clink and I have an op ed piece talking about our views on Medical Marijuana.  Ah, most of the commenters don't agree with us, and while many of the remarks are thoughtful, many aren't.  Does smoking weed interfere with the ability to spell?    I got one phone call from a gentleman (no name, blocked number) telling me I need my head examined, that marijuana is the safest substance known to man, I shouldn't be popping my mouth off and I know nothing.  Okay, so I know what I'm going to write about for our Clinical Psychiatry News blog this week.


My favorite comment might be:
 ....who are apprantly "psychiatrists."  Make sure next time you disclose the sources of your income for us....BIG PHARMA.  Also, how many patients would you lose if pot were lagal and you didn't have to prescribe Prozac every day?  50%?  75%?
Marijuana is plant and should not be regulated like drugs at all.  Drugs kill.
Drugs are dangerous.  Marijuana is not.

On a lighter note, we talked at Suburban Hospital on Thursday evening.  Over 80 people showed up...on a week night, at 6:30 pm, no less....to hear a bunch of psychiatrists~!  It went well from what I could tell, lots of questions, very few people ran out of the auditorium screaming.  I felt very honored that so many people would come out to hear us.  

I did want to share with you that part of Clink's talk was to read some of the comments we got on the post What is Bipolar Disorder?  I've given talks with Clink a number of times now, but I didn't know she was going to do this and her reading of the comments was moving.  Sarebear, if you're reading this, I wanted you to know that when she was reading your description of bipolar disorder, I was thinking that you need to become a writer.

[other posts on marijuana]

My Three Shrinks Podcast 50: More About Geeks

In this show we continue with our guest Dr. Pat Barta of the Adventures in Telepsychiatry blog.

We talk about electronic health information systems and Clink continues her rant which she started in her post Rage Against The Machine. Roy mentions the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which provides funding incentives for doctors who use health information technology. We cover developing standards for behavioral health information technology, including personal health records which allow patients to store their own information voluntarily "in the cloud", on a server. Dr. Pat Barta talks Open source health record systems and information security.

Health Data Rights is an organization that developed a proposed declaration of rights for patient data. Another organization addressing this is SpeakerFlower, of which Roy is the spokesperson.

Dinah talks about her blog postWhat's An Emergency? and wonders how flexible psychiatrists should be when a patient says they need to be seen right away. Which situations are truly emergencies? What should you do if a patient turns down multiple appointments offered for that same day? Should your office voicemail tell people to call 911?

Finally, Dinah wonders what has happened in states with medical marijuana laws. She mentions KevinMD's blog post Medical Marijuana Has Doctors Asking Questions. Should marijuana be prescribed for attention deficit disorder? How do you do clinical research on a controlled substance?

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