Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine
Thursday, September 9, 2010
OUR OPINION: Pot clinics should guard against drug diversion
In the 1990s, well-meaning physicians changed the way they prescribed narcotics after medical researchers determined that pain was being undertreated in the United States.
As a result, large quantities of powerful drugs like OxyContin were diverted into the black market. Drug makers, pharmacists and doctors got smarter about how they distributed the drugs, but not before people abused them and became addicted, in many cases leaving their lives ruined or their families grieving.
Maine will face a similar danger with the opening of medical marijuana dispensaries next year, with four of the first six run by Northeast Patients Group, a California-based firm.
The dispensary for central Maine will locate either in Waterville or Augusta, depending on zoning regulations, the new hospital and the highway exit. Outgoing Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion, Winthrop resident Faith Benedetti and a retired pharmacist from Holden are on the groups board of directors.
Remedy Compassion Center received the license for the district that comprises Franklin, Oxford and Androscoggin counties. The proposed location is in East Wilton.
Reports of how medical marijuana is distributed in California makes Northeast Patients Groups presence here unsettling. On the West Coast, medical marijuana is seen by many as a legal fig leaf for recreational drug use, with clinics equipped with onsite doctors, who can write prescriptions for anxiety to any patient who wants one.
Maines rules about how prescriptions are written and for what conditions are much stricter than Californias, and if they are rigorously followed, Maines dispensaries have a better chance of getting marijuana to those who are supposed to have it.
We are encouraged that Northeast Patients Group has named Dion to its board of directors. Dion was an early advocate of medical marijuana, but a vocal opponent of general legalization. He will bring a law-enforcement perspective that should be valuable in determining the safest ways to distribute the drug.
We dont need another drug-diversion disaster. Its up to the state and these licensees to make sure it doesnt happen again.
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17 COMMENTS
AKMaineiac said...
A drug diversion disaster? What form will that take? Really, I don't smoke it and wouldn't even if it were legal. Don't even have much use for alcohol and never have, don't anticipate developing one either. Seen too many lives ruined with the crap. But the plain fact is, we're not going to be seeing anyone overdosing on pot. We're not likely to be seeing a spike in armed robberies to support a dope habit. Those who are going to, already are. Those who wouldn't, don't. "The Law" has little to do with it, for those who are doing it. For those who don't, it's widely available and if they wanted to they would be.
July 12, 2010 at 1:15 AM Report abuse
aircraft said...
Any pain doc that has an ounce of common sense has already to their patients off the record to try pot especially if they can't keep weight on or it works for pain relief.Too often the do gooders setting up clinics or in this case our local paper can't begin to understand what it's like to suffer from uncontrolled pain that lasts for years.It destroys families and lives.I get a kick out of how you describe it calling the drug pot instead of marijuana It's obvious how you are going to paint this in a negative light even if it helps a humdred patients.The first year projects are 21 people with the company charging $349 an ounce.Mainers are an industries lot I bet half will grow their own before adding another expensive med that insurance won't pay for.
July 12, 2010 at 1:22 AM Report abuse
louisH2Ovill said...
No, we should just legalize pot and monitor its use like alcohol and cigarettes. It is NOT worth the effort for prohibition in terms of the more important things police can focus on!
July 12, 2010 at 3:58 AM Report abuse
Jazz11 said...
hat in the heck are you people saying? Comparing Oxyconton with pot? That is plain stupid.
July 12, 2010 at 4:08 AM Report abuse
mungo said...
A:Promote mind altering drugs as fun. Check B: Make said drugs illegal. Check C: Arrest the people who use the drugs. Check
July 12, 2010 at 6:02 AM Report abuse
heyyou said...
The street price is under 300$. Who will use this clinic? This have never been about the sick. Marijuana has been in pill form form year. This is to ge high from. Hamish Turner, the president of the Coroners' Society, told The Telegraph that the marijuana, often portrayed as harmless, has increasingly been the cause of deaths that have been reported as accidents or suicides. "Cannabis is as dangerous as any other drug and people must understand that it kills," said Mr Turner. "From my long experience I can say that it is a very dangerous substance. Increasingly it is mentioned not only as the first drug taken by people who overdose, but also in suicides and accidental deaths.
July 12, 2010 at 7:56 AM Report abuse
heyyou said...
ScienceDaily (Feb. 3, 2009) — Adolescents and young adults who are heavy users of marijuana are more likely than non-users to have disrupted brain development, according to a new study. Pediatric researchers found abnormalities in areas of the brain that interconnect brain regions involved in memory, attention, decision-making, language and executive functioning skills. The findings are of particular concern because adolescence is a crucial period for brain development and maturation. The study appeared in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
July 12, 2010 at 8:05 AM Report abuse
PDF said...
From my admittedly limited experience of adolecents smoking pot, it is the first stage of progression to other drugs. It is a slippery slope. Young people can easily rationalize the use of pot. Not against a regulted use to control pain.
July 12, 2010 at 8:14 AM Report abuse
louisH2Ovill said...
Well, you closed minded right-wingers ignore the danger--much greater--of alcohol and tobacco. Get the government OUT of this intervention in people's private lives. What a phony argument you pseudo-conservatives make. The police can concentrate on real crime and really harmful drugs instead. Marijuana is just not that serious an issue to criminalize.
July 12, 2010 at 8:21 AM Report abuse
heyyou said...
I know Louis the science is so closed-minded. Imagine looking at facts and seeking truth, it crazy. In addition, it not criminalized to use it, not for year. I know one more closed mined fact.
July 12, 2010 at 8:49 AM Report abuse
WhiteRose said...
Charging sick people the black market price of $5000 a pound is disgusting and shameful.
July 12, 2010 at 10:41 AM Report abuse
WhiteRose said...
Let's look at some history and some facts. Cannabis was legal and used by doctors for a variety of ailments ubtil 1937, when the Federal government started it's prohibition against Cannabis. With the help of the Hearst yellow journalism news empire, and movies like Reefer Madness, the government propaganda helped push through Cannabis prohibition. Most of white America knew of cannabis as a medicine, The people using it recreationally were mostly the African Americans in the inner cities(jazz musisians) and the Latinos on the southwest border. So, in order to get support for it's prohibition, it was given the Mexican name, Marijuana, in a subliminal appeal to the white Americans. You know, it's "those dirty little Mexicans" that smoke it and will then kill and rape us.
July 12, 2010 at 11:02 AM Report abuse
UHJvdG9wbGF6bQ%3D%3D said...
I would not take the opinion of Hamish Turner, a Coroner, as a reason to maintain this failed policy. He cannot claim that marijuana is the cause of any death. There simply is no proof that marijuana is toxic at any level.(Unlike aspirin, the direct cause of many deaths from internal bleeding.) As for the study on adolescents, I agree, children under 19 should not use marijuana, nor should they use tobacco. Should we make tobacco illegal for everyone? We tried prohibition once before. That was the real disaster. Finally, I suspect that close to 100% of the people who went on to try Crystal Meth also watched TV at some point in their recent past. Just because one event follows another, does not prove one caused the other. The people of Maine have spoken. This issue has been settled. Let's move on.
July 12, 2010 at 12:17 PM Report abuse
AKMaineiac said...
heyyou said... ScienceDaily (Feb. 3, 2009) — Adolescents and young adults who are heavy users of marijuana are more likely than non-users to have disrupted brain development, *** Could the reverse argument be read into that study? "young adults with disrupted brain development are more likely to use marijuana than those with normal brains?" More likely the situation... seen with alcohol as well.
July 12, 2010 at 12:47 PM Report abuse
3Steps said...
Can we point out here that if Pot were legal then it wouldn't be legal for those adolescent kids any more than it is now? People die from alcohol and cigarettes, has anyone actually died from smoking pot? Ever? I'm looking forward to medical MJ. I've never used it but I hear it's good for migraines. The stuff I'm taking now is horribly expensive and dangerous to use with my other medication.
July 12, 2010 at 2:51 PM Report abuse
SMC said...
alcohol is the true gateway drug in this country and around the world
July 28, 2010 at 3:54 PM Report abuse
aircraft said...
I wonder if these folks who think marijuana is just plain bad thought of their grandparents drinking coca-cola cira 1900. You ask why ? The formula stil had coca in it still did until late 30's.
July 30, 2010 at 4:12 AM Report abuse