Champaign – People across the state are having trouble signing up for the medical marijuana pilot program.
It’s not because they don’t quality – but because their doctors won’t sign the paperwork.
Mindy Haile was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis decades ago.
“We’ve tried physical therapies, the water therapy, exercises, medications. And the medications have steadily increased because they’re not keeping up with the pain … I take 17 different drugs a day, $1,800 a month,” says Haile.
When rheumatoid arthritis became a qualifying condition for medical marijuana, she did her research and found out about a salve.
“I don’t want to smoke it, I don’t want to eat it, I just want to rub it on those joints that hurt,” she says.
She took the idea to her rheumatologist and asked him to sign the necessary paperwork. “I talked to him about it and he was kind of quiet and then he said I cannot do that. He said we have a policy against it, we cannot participate in this program,” she says.
Haile’s doctor works for Carle. Carle gives doctors the right to say “yes or no” when it comes to signing off on medical marijuana – so she can’t understand why he answered the way he did.
Dispensary workers in Champaign say it’s an issue they deal with every day.
“We know that these patients have been prescribed numerous types of medications that are much more dangerous than medical cannabis – yet we still have this stigma and fear surrounding this natural medicine,” says Dan Linn, the National Policy Director of Phoenix Botanical.
Up until this summer, Illinois doctors had to recommend cannabis for patients. That didn’t seem to work, so the law changed.
“They revised the language so that now doctors simply certify that patients have one of the qualifying conditions and they’re being treated by that specific doctor. The idea was to make this a little bit easier for doctors, and in a lot of cases their lawyers, but yet we still see a lot of resistance and reluctance to sign these certification forms,” says Linn.
He says that leaves people driving hours away to find a doctor who will say yes. That’s a frustration for Haile, who has a dispensary less than 10 minutes from her house.
“I have a shirt that has all the fish going this way – and one that goes this direction. I want to find that doctor who’s the one that goes the other direction that says, here, I’m willing to do it,” she says.
Haile’s doctor did write her a separate note stating she has rheumatoid arthritis and is receiving treatment for it – but she says because he didn’t sign the state-issued paperwork, she’s at a standstill.
The medical marijuana pilot program runs through 2020. There are about 11,000 patients signed up so far across the state. Workers at Phoenix Botanical in Champaign say they have up to 15 people a day walk in who can’t get their doctors to sign off.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: People Having Trouble Getting Medical Marijuana
Author: Jessica Kunz
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