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Every day, patients around America use cannabis to treat everything from glaucoma to chronic pain to nausea from chemotherapy treatments. Yet even in places like California, which pioneered legal medical marijuana in 1996 and passed adult-use cannabis in 2016, hospital policy has not caught up with the law and cannabis remains officially barred from hospital premises across the country. The reason why should sound familiar: federal prohibition.<\/p>\n
Hospitals in the United States are subject to federal regulations, and could stand to lose funding and the ability to serve patients if they break the federal law, even with something like a state-legal medication.<\/p>\n
This conflict between state and federal law on cannabis use in hospitals has very real consequences. One woman, Jessica Assaf, wrote on\u00a0Healthcare in America<\/a>\u00a0in January 2018 about the experience of watching her partner\u2019s father die of colon cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter two years of failed chemotherapy and radiation, this prominent New York City lawyer weighed 130 pounds and could no longer talk nor move,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThough this patient had a medical recommendation for cannabis use in New York and vaporized THC and CBD daily to manage his pain, he could not use his medicine while he was stuck in the hospital. Instead, he was administered fentanyl.\u201d<\/p>\n The medical marijuana movement, in fact, has a history of pushing for cannabis use in hospitals. The legendary activist known as Brownie Mary brought the issue\u00a0into the international spotlight<\/a>\u00a0after she was arrested for bringing pot brownies to people dying of HIV\/AIDS in San Francisco\u2019s hospitals in the 1980s. Forty years later, it might be legal for millions to purchase medical marijuana \u2014 but using it in hospitals remains as prohibited as ever.<\/p>\n The first sign of progress in allowing cannabis use in hospitals came in September 2016, just north of San Francisco. In a 2-0 vote, with three members abstaining, the board of California\u2019s\u00a0Marin Healthcare District<\/a>\u00a0voted in favor of \u00a0a\u00a0resolution to study<\/a>\u00a0allowing patient cannabis use at Marin General Hospital, in the town of Greenbrae. A series of public forums were to be held to discuss the proposal.<\/p>\n However, in the three years since, the study has not been conducted and has effectively stalled.<\/p>\n The resolution was originally introduced by retired emergency room physician Dr. Larry Bedard, who had served on the\u00a0California Medical Association<\/a>\u00a0cannabis task force that led to the association\u00a0recommending<\/a>\u00a0legalization in 2011.<\/p>\n \u201cWe ought to be on the cutting edge for our patients, allowing them to openly and appropriately use medicinal cannabis,\u201d Bedard told San Francisco\u2019s\u00a0KPIX<\/a>\u00a0at the time of the Marin resolution.<\/p>\n Speaking at the board meeting in support of the resolution was Lynnette Shaw, who\u00a0opened the first licensed medical marijuana dispensary in Marin County back in 1997<\/a>. She told KPIX she had been sneaking pot brownies into Marin General for 20 years, and that most doctors there were perfectly aware of the practice. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is something they know about,\u201d said Shaw. \u201cI think it\u2019s time for Marin General to step up, because this is a revolution for better health\u2026 For goodness sake, help the patients! Save lives!\u201d<\/p>\n However, Shaw\u2019s comments apparently didn\u2019t get through. In the three years since the Marin Healthcare District voted to study the issue, little has come of it. Reached for comment in Marin County by Cannabis Now, Bedard says the resolution has seen no progress.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hospital administrators basically said \u2018C\u2019mon Larry, it\u2019s a Schedule I drug, the Trump administration would take away our Medicare provider number and we\u2019d have to close,\u201d Bedard tells us.<\/p>\n He points out that any hospital that handles Medicare patients \u2014 predominantly people with the federal health insurance for those over 65 \u2014 must be certified by the federal\u00a0Department of Health & Human Services<\/a>. And while there is a small\u00a0push to get Medicare to cover medical marijuana<\/a>, there are few prospects for this happening under the current White House administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n An attempted remedy at the state level in California has also failed. Last year,\u00a0Senate Bill 305<\/a>, the \u201cCompassionate Access to Medical Cannabis Act,\u201d\u00a0unanimously passed<\/a>\u00a0both chambers of California\u2019s Legislature. It would have prohibited healthcare facilities from interfering with a terminally ill patient\u2019s use of medical cannabis. It was also dubbed \u201cRyan\u2019s Law,\u201d after Ryan James Bartell, a San Diego native who had died of pancreatic cancer in April 2018. But in October, it was \u201cbegrudgingly\u201d vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.<\/p>\n \u201cThis bill would create significant conflicts between federal and state laws that cannot be taken lightly,\u201d Newsom wrote in a\u00a0veto statement<\/a>, noting that \u201chealth facilities certified to receive payment from the from the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services must comply with all federal laws.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But his statement also took aim at those federal laws. \u201cIt is inconceivable that the federal government continues to regard cannabis as having no medicinal value,\u201d Newsom wrote, adding that this \u201cludicrous stance puts patients and those who care for them in an unconscionable position.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Clearly, the stakes in this question are high due to the illegality of cannabis at the federal level. While 11 states have legalized adult-use cannabis and 33 states have legalized medicinal marijuana, the feds still hold significant sway over hospital policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n First, as already noted, hospitals must be accredited through the federal Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services and \u201ccould be found to be in violation, lose federal funding, and face penalties\u201d if they allow even state-legal cannabis use, according to\u00a0a 2017 article in the peer-reviewed journal Hospital Pharmacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Second, clinicians are also prohibited from prescribing or providing cannabis in a hospital because it is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.<\/p>\n \u201cYet, hospitals in more states are asked to create cannabis policies as voters decriminalize cannabis for medical use,\u201d the authors Laura Borgelt and Kari Franson wrote in that same article. \u201cThere is no recognized supplier of medicinal cannabis, so hospitals are often asked to allow patients to bring in their own supply for their own use.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But in a Kafkaesque twist, hospitals then risk running afoul of a guideline established by the\u00a0Joint Commission<\/a>, the national body that sets standards for medical facilities. Joint Commission Standard MM.03.01.05 states: \u201cThe hospital informs the prescriber and patient if the medication brought into the hospital by patients, their families, or licensed independent practitioners is not permitted.\u201d<\/p>\n Borgelt and Franson note that some hospitals have considered that \u201ccannabis policies that could adequately address this standard\u201d and allow cannabis on its premises if it informs everyone involved that the cannabis is \u201cnot permitted.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut several questions remain,\u201d the authors write. \u201cFor example, how is the product identified, how does the institution verify its integrity, and how is a federally illegal drug \u2018permitted\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n However, some doctors have taken a more\u00a0laissez-faire<\/em>\u00a0approach to the issue of allowing cannabis in hospitals.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s a legal question and an ethical question,\u201d Dr. Benjamin Caplan, founder of the\u00a0CED Clinic<\/a>\u00a0and a representative of the group\u00a0Doctors for Cannabis Regulation<\/a>, told\u00a0Patient Safety Monitor Journal in 2019<\/a>. \u201cIn order for doctors to best manage illnesses carefully, and to the best of our abilities, we must know as much as we can [about] what a patient is taking. But it\u2019s very common for patients to sneak cannabis in back rooms or under the radar, which is really unfortunate for everyone. I think the hospital perspective should be embracing what patients find helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n Emphasizing the ethical dimension, Caplan added: \u201cTo have cases where patients are having seizures in a hospital and they can\u2019t get the medicine that they want (and find helpful) as an outpatient is a real cultural disconnect for the medical establishment. I think the solution is for people to not sneak around; the solution is for hospitals to open their arms to patients who find a medication helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n The question of whether or not it\u2019s allowed to use cannabis in a hospital is a particular concern for military veterans \u2014 many of whom use cannabis to treat PTSD, yet are more directly dependent on the federal government for their healthcare. The U.S.\u00a0Department of\u00a0Veterans Affairs<\/a>\u00a0has\u00a0remained largely intransigent on the question<\/a>\u00a0of medical cannabis, despite growing pressure.<\/p>\n \u201cMoving to make cannabis available through VA hospitals or other go-to sources of care is difficult,\u201d\u00a0the VA website notes<\/a>. \u201cDoctors at VA facilities aren\u2019t just prohibited from prescribing marijuana: The drug is still listed as \u2018Schedule I,\u2019 so these health care professionals can\u2019t even speak about it with their patients.\u201d<\/p>\n Needless to say, if the VA won\u2019t allow its doctors to prescribe cannabis, it\u2019s certainly not allowing its patients to use cannabis on the premises of VA hospitals.<\/p>\n The most significant opening for allowing cannabis in hospitals appears to come from the Mayo Clinic, the national network of medical treatment and research facilities. The\u00a0Mayo Clinic website<\/a>\u00a0recognizes that \u201cmedical cannabis has possible benefit for several conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n It notes that three states \u2014 Arizona, Florida and Minnesota \u2014 have adopted some form of the \u201cRight to Try Act<\/a>,\u201d allowing access to \u201cinvestigational\u201d treatments, potentially including cannabis, for people with life-threatening conditions who have exhausted approved treatment options.<\/p>\n In one of those states, the Mayo Clinic allows on-premises use: \u201cMinnesota residents with a supply of medical cannabis from the Minnesota Medical Cannabis program may continue use during their Mayo Clinic visit or hospital admission.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the Mayo Clinic is in a unique position as a not-for-profit organization with national renown and standing as a top research institute. While the Mayo Clinic\u00a0receives a significant amount of federal funding<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0has a Medicare number<\/a>, it appears willing to take the risk with the federal government. If other hospitals will follow remains to be seen.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong>\u00a0do you think patients should be allowed to use cannabis in the hospital?<\/p>\n The post Cannabis Use in Hospitals Is Still Prohibited, Despite State Medical Pot Programs<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Every day, patients around America use cannabis to treat everything from glaucoma to chronic pain to nausea from chemotherapy treatments. Yet even in places like California, which pioneered legal medical marijuana in 1996 and passed adult-use cannabis in 2016, hospital policy has not caught up with the law and cannabisContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":40683,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,1534,13091,2656,53,139,13092,978],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40682"}],"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\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40684,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40682\/revisions\/40684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}California Pioneering the Fight for Cannabis Use in Hospitals<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/lynetteshaw.jpg\")
Doctors Weigh In<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Veterans Lack Access to Cannabis in VA Hospitals<\/strong><\/h4>\n
The Mayo Clinic & the Potential for Change<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Cannabis Use in Hospitals Is Still Prohibited, Despite State Medical Pot Programs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"