State Delaying Medical Marijuana Cards; Doctors Not Eager to Prescribe – Dakota Free Press

The Legislature’s Marijuana Panel learned yesterday that the Department of Health will not begin issuing medical marijuana permits to patients until November 18th. The state’s delay in carrying out the will of the people annoys me fundamentally, but not in practice: I plan to stay healthy and not need medical marijuana, but when my health or that of someone in my family changes and ours Doctor says that pot will heal what hurts us, I just drive to North Dakota or Minnesota or one of the other 33 states where Freedom ™ is not just one Newspeak campaign slogan and buy a herbal remedy.

But after the sounds of the Yankton doctor and the President of the State Medical Association, Benjamin Aaker, yesterday to the Pot Committee, my doctor in South Dakota may not be too eager to prescribe crazy weed::

“The research takes a lot of time, and we’re not there with marijuana yet. Marijuana has roughly 400 different chemicals and we believe there are some chemicals in this marijuana plant that are and can be beneficial to the health of patients who are we suffer from ailments, but we also believe that it is there are a number of chemicals that are harmful to patients too, ”said Dr. Aaker [Don Jorgensen, “There Could Be a Delay in Implementing Medical Marijuana,” KELO-TV, 2021.05.26].

Jeremy Daniel, an instructor at the SDSU pharmacy, told the panel about some research, but he did didn’t make it sound too great::

He listed six symptoms that people sometimes treat with marijuana. He said studies found that efficacy was low for nausea and vomiting, low to moderate for appetite stimulation, somewhat low for glaucoma, moderate for seizures and epilepsy, high for pain relief, and varying from effective after about a month to more problems for PTSD after about four months [Bob Mercer, “Panel Digs into South Dakota’s Marijuana Laws,” KELO-TV, updated 2021.05.27].

According to the South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations, stronger research may be needed to remove a pot prescription from doctors in South Dakota:

… Sarah Aker, the director of the Association for Financial Policy, later said doctors had expressed their reluctance to sign the certification cards.

That’s because under South Dakota LawThey would indicate “that in the professional opinion of the physician the patient is likely to derive therapeutic or palliative benefit from the medicinal use of cannabis to treat or alleviate the patient’s debilitating medical condition or symptom associated with the debilitating medical condition”. [Mercer, 2021.05.27].

Even if the state finishes pulling its feet and issuing those medical marijuana cards, I won’t rush to get in line. Until I hear otherwise from the doctors, I’ll limit my green leaf intake to romaine and spinach.