The state’s medical-marijuana industry wants to be looked at seriously, however its bumpy start and questionable work ethics have produced exactly the opposite effect.
Its history of shoddy background checks on marijuana shops applicants exposed a lack of professional oversight that prolonged its rollout for several months.
The state’s first marijuana shop, in Salem, didn’t open until June, and the second, in Brockton, just opened in August.
Patriot Care Corp., which is setting up to run a marijuana shop and cultivation facility in Lowell, is working toward a January opening.
And now we discovered, thanks to an illuminating article in The Sun last Monday, that the vast majority of medical-marijuana doses given so far went for treatments not recognized under the existing law.
To date, 2,333 prescriptions, known as certifications, have been authorized for the eight state-approved conditions — ALS, Parkinson’s disease, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, cancer and hepatitis C — while another 22,130 approved fall under the “other” category in the state’s database.
That’s because Massachusetts is just one of three states — along with California and New Hampshire — that give licensed physicians the choice to dispense medical marijuana for other reasons not officially sanctioned.
What’s the positive of compiling an official list of conditions if doctors can deem whether or not to prescribe medical marijuana? It takes the teeth out of this current law.
These startling numbers show the need — again — for reform in the state’s toddling medical-marijuana industry. The law should be amended to further review the conditions covered, and to limit vigorously any exceptions to that official list.
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