(AZ) Small core of doctors write vast majority of medical marijuana recommendations [View all]

Last edited Sun Nov 10, 2013, 03:14 PM - Edit history (1)

ust 25 doctors are responsible for allowing more than 25,000 Arizonans to legally obtain marijuana, according to a report released Friday.

State health director Will Humble said the evidence shows development of “certification mills” since voters approved a law in 2010 that allows those with a doctor’s recommendation to obtain up to 2½ ounces of marijuana every two weeks.

Those 25 doctors — out of more than 27,000 licensed in Arizona — are responsible for 70 percent of the recommendations issued in a one-year period.

Humble said he is troubled by the findings. But he said there may not be much he can do about it.

He said it may be that all of the 36,346 recommendations issued during that one-year period are justified. But he said it would be better if the patients actually worked with their regular primary-care physicians who are familiar with them and can offer ongoing treatment.

He acknowledged, though, that many family doctors have been reluctant to recommend marijuana, possibly because they lack information about the drug. Others, Humble said, don’t want to deal with what they see as an administrative hassle of certifying patients, a process different from simply writing a prescription.

That “pushes the patients to the certification-mill physicians,” he said.

Overall, the state found just 472 doctors statewide issued the more than 36,000 medical marijuana recommendations. Of that, 27,275 came from naturopaths, who make up fewer than 7 percent of all physicians in Arizona.

“It’s unfair to say this is a problem with naturopaths,” Humble said. “It’s a problem with about 20 to 25 naturopaths.”

http://azstarnet.com/news/science/health-med-fit/small-core-of-doctors-write-vast-majority-of-medical-marijuana/article_e7f5a1c7-7956-5eb2-9790-230afd0eb31d.html