Here is the link to a national ad regarding medical marijuana that is going to be advertised on TV. A lot of people have differing opinions of this. HERE IS MINE. READ ON…

http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-news-potad0830,0,5605124.story

Today in Long Beach I took care of a 54 year old man who uses medical marijuana to control chronic pain after having 7 back surgeries. In the past he was a chronic user of opiates and NSAID’s such as Alleve, Motrin and Acetaminphen (Tylenol) but developed RENAL CELL CARCINOMA (KIDNEY CANCER) as a result of his chronic use of NSAIDS and just last month had to have his right kidney removed. READ MORE….

Today in Irvine I took care of a 54 year old women who is post-menopausal and uses medical marijuana to treat her insomnia, night sweats and mood changes. Because of a strong family history of breast cancer she did not want to use hormone replacement therapy (which has been linked to increased risk of breast cancer in some women). She said that the medications that they put her on to help her relax and fall asleep were addictive and she “hated them”. Specifically they put her on xanax for anxiety and lunestra for sleep. In both cases the side effects were too much to handle. READ ON….

Currently in California there is very little over site and regulation on the growing of medical marijuana. This is mostly because it is still illegal to grow marijuana Federally and growers do want to bring any unwanted attention to themselves. Until California steps up and protects it’s medical marijuana growers patients are never going to have the protection they need to insure that their medicine is free of molds, insects and pesticides. This is a major problem for patients! READ ON…

If you are not familiar with the various methods of medicating with medical marijuana you are probably reading this thinking that patients must SMOKE it in order to get it’s benefits. Actually a high percentage of my patients who have been using cannabis for quite some time thought they had to smoke it. There are really two ways to medicate:

Today in my Irvine office I took care of a 56 year old man who uses medical marijuana to treat his acute attacks of Gouty Arthritis. He has had 4 attacks since my initial evaluation last year and states that he can not take typical doses of NSAIDS (alleve/motrin/indomethicin) because of a history of gastric ulcers (as a result of overuse if NSAIDS). In addition to diet modification, alcohol elimination and regular exercise, this patient can expect to get moderate relief of his pain and inflammation with cannabis alone.

I often treat patients who feel like they have to (or DO have to) hide their use of medical marijuana from their significant others or family members. Some are parents with teenage children. Others are not able to speak to their spouse because of the dissenting opinions regarding its validity as a medication. In this post I offer some advice because having the support of your family can be a blessing when it comes to being healed.

This ruling was supposed to be the one that set precedent for cities in California to legally be able to ban medical marijuana dispensaries within their city limits. In 2007 the City of Anaheim banned marijuana dispensaries stating that they can’t create an ordinance that conflicts with federal law (marijuana is illegal federally). The decision was appealed and just today the ruling came in. ANAHEIM CAN NOT BAN MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES USING THE “IT IS ILLEGAL UNDER FEDERAL LAW” ARGUMENT. HOWEVER…

Was just reading today about a Colorado physician was was arrested for writing fraudulent medical marijuana recommendations to 2 undercover police officers. (http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15800217) Per this article, the two officers said they were involved in a motor vehicle accident. The doctor apparently gave them a recommendation citing “Pain” as the qualifying diagnosis. The problem was that apparently the officers never mentioned that they were in pain. The doctor just used that to justify writing the recommendation. Another example of greed getting in the way of good medicine.

Today I had a patient who went to another clinic last week for a medical marijuana recommendation and the doctor was seeing patients over “skype” (computer). Feeling pretty uneasy about how shady the operation was he decided to walk out and make an appointment to be evaluated in our Irvine office. PATIENTS NEED TO REALIZE THAT SEEING PATIENTS OVER VIDEO SKYPE DOES NOT MEET THE STANDARD OF CARE AS SET FORTH BY THE STATE MEDICAL BOARD. Any recommendation from a doctor over “skype” is at risk of being invalid once this doctor is reprimanded or loses his medical license. It is extremely important that you ask the clinic if the doctor is going to PHYSICALLY BE PRESENT to examine you and sign a recommendation.