Deborah Brickley: Doctors can discriminate against patients who use cannabis
As a 65-year-old citizen with a medical marijuana permit, I feel intimidated and betrayed by local county politics. The national push to address the heroin epidemic and opioid abuse have affected real people with chronic pain very negatively. I have debilitating orthopedic issues that require opioids, and now a new issue has increased my pain.
My pain doctor in an adjacent county that, much like Merced, requires a contract that lets him randomly test my blood for drug levels and cannabis. He can dismiss me as a patient if he finds cannabis because they say it is federally illegal. How can they rationalize this intimidation when, at the same time, they are trying to decrease use of opioids? I have a medical marijuana permit. The veterans have the same problem. Many people with pain and severe illness are being discriminated against.
Merced county is right up there.
Deborah Brickley, Merced
This story was originally published April 11, 2016 at 1:03 PM with the headline "Deborah Brickley: Doctors can discriminate against patients who use cannabis."