A<\/span>s the old saw says, horses dragged to cool streams can\u2019t be forced to stand and sip. But what about thirsty horses who know there\u2019s water? They can hear it! Everyone\u2019s talking about it! But they can\u2019t, for the life of them, find the darn stream?<\/p>\n This is the situation facing would-be medical marijuana patients in Arkansas, which joined the swelling ranks of medical cannabis states last fall. It\u2019s not a secret that people suffering from one of 19 afflictions qualify to become marijuana patients, and use the plant legally. But first, you first need to find a doctor. That\u2019s been a challenge, and a reason why only 16 physicians across the state are in the business, and why only about 800 patients have been certified with the health department, according to Arkansas Public Radio.<\/p>\n \u201cThe physicians are not available. The patients are not coming forward and there\u2019s a disconnect for this program from being successful,\u201d said Dr. Phillip Din, in an interview with CBS affiliate THV-11.<\/a><\/p>\n So few doctors in Arkansas have proven willing to meet with patients and certify their sicknesses for the Arkansas Department of Health \u2014 in part because of \u201cpeer pressure\u201d from colleagues \u2014 that Din, a nevertheless enterprising physician, felt compelled to put up a billboard along the interstate in order to promote his new website.<\/p>\n On EvergreenArkansas.com<\/a>, patients can set up an appointment at a motel off of the highway, and for $225, they can walk away with paperwork to certify them with the state. Apparently that\u2019s cheaper than the prices charged by other physicians in the state, Din told the television station.<\/p>\n One explanation for why doctors are so hard to come by comes from Dr. Tammy Post, herself a board-certified physician and, along with Din, one of the few Arkansas doctors certifying patients for a state card.<\/p>\n \u201cI was one of those doctors that thought marijuana was all the myths we believed about a gateway drug,\u201d she told Arkansas Public Radio<\/a>. \u201cI believed it to be illicit and dangerous, like ecstasy and heroin and cocaine.\u201d<\/p>\n And in order for Post to become cannabis-friendly, it took reading medical articles online to become convinced that cannabis was legitimate medicine. Not professional education, not encouragement from a physicians\u2019 association. Googling.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no marijuana available quite yet. At some point, patients will be able to acquire cannabis at one of 32 dispensaries statewide, which will in turn be supplied by five marijuana cultivator. Post believes that the Arkansas dispensary experience will be akin to entering a pharmacy, with budtenders able to dispense medical advice, including matching strains and THC-CBD ratios to patients\u2019 specific needs.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a level of sophistication lacking at dispensaries in many others states \u2014 in no small part because having someone who is not a medical professional offer medical advice can create legal problems. But in Arkansas, dispensaries are required to have a board-certified pharmacist on board to make those decisions.<\/p>\n There are some other odd wrinkles. According to Post, people who come her way are subject to \u201cpre-tox\u201d screenings that check for drug use. \u201cWe do a urine tox screen to make sure that these aren\u2019t people coming in to get drugs,\u201d she told APR. Right\u2026 drugs, like the drug medical marijuana.<\/p>\n At some point, as many as 40,000 people will enroll in Arkansas\u2019s medical marijuana program, Post told the radio station. Since Arkansas is in the top 10 of states nationwide where patients are prescribed the most opiates,<\/a> that number is probably conservative. Or it would be, if there were more doctors in the house.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you have a medical marijuana recommendation?<\/p>\n The post Participation in Arkansas Medical Marijuana Still Limited<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Arkansas medical marijuana program is facing a lack of doctors willing to recommend cannabis to patients. As the old saw says, horses dragged to cool streams can\u2019t be forced to stand and sip. But what about thirsty horses who know there\u2019s water? They can hear it! Everyone\u2019s talking about it!Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1008,50,53,139],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19376"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19377,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19376\/revisions\/19377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\nRead More: Participation in Arkansas Medical Marijuana Still Limited<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"