I work in social services, and I’m about to lose my shit on the rapidly increasing numbers of perfectly healthy d-bag clients who ask me to help them get a medical marijuana license. They’re for people with legitimate medical needs like cancer or MS, not for unemployed losers who like getting high with their friends. I see right through your claims of “um, back pain?” and I sincerely hope that medical doctors do too. I have nothing against people who smoke pot for their own personal enjoyment, just not for people who want to scam the system for a get out of jail free card. —Not Your Enabler
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2015.
Actual J SOB, a lot of clients ask their social workers, etc to intervene on their behalf in these types of matters. Part of having a medical condition that requires long term follow up means that a number of health providers from different specialties work together to formulate a treatment and care plan. Similarly, often times people who access social work services for medical conditions such as mental illness and addiction have concurrent health concerns that need to be addressed. This includes social workers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, nurse practitioners, physicians from different specialties and so on and so forth.
Intervention and authorization are completely different things.
OB said clients ask for “help.” No mention of them asking them to sign off on the paperwork.
Absolutely correct. Only those with legitimate medical conditions should be able to acquire a medical marijuana licence which, I assume, means free marijuana. It should not be too difficult for those whose responsibility it is to make the distinction.
You are not a doctor OP, you are a social worker. You don’t get to diagnose people or decide who has a legitimate claim. Your clients are misinformed if they think a social worker can provide medical services. You are misinformed if you think social services covers medical marijuana. The whole thing is a non-issue.
MM: it does NOT mean free marijuana. The people I know who are using nature’s remedy aka marijuana are paying for it themselves and it’s not cheap.
Misinformed pot-heads?
NO, it can’t be…
http://orig01.deviantart.net/9dee/f/2012/3…
Don’t have addictions you cannot afford.
montrealman a medical license does not mean free weed. It just means you are authorized to buy it through official dealers. My fiance has MS she buys hers from new brunswick and it is not cheap, but works way better than anything else for the migraines.
“I work in social services” does not mean this person is a registered Social Worker and I certainly hope they did not waste their time and money on a Master’s of Social Work if they are “about to lose their shit” over their “d-bag clients”. There are so many more upsetting and frustrating things that someone could be dealing with in the world of social service work. I think this “social service worker” is the “d-bag” and should find a new career asap!
Now WTF was wrong with my comment? Not abusive; not personal; a statement of fact.
Jesus, I swear some days there is an ape at the Wheel of Life.
I too have seen an increase in people asking for medical marijuana licenses for all sorts of silly reasons, along with a few patients who genuinely fit the prescribing criteria. The people from the first category leave my office disappointed, as OP hoped. Ethical doctors don’t prescribe controlled substances just because a patient asks for it, without a thorough investigation of potential cause for symptoms, treatment options, history etc.
There is rampant misunderstanding of what a medical marijuana licence offers: it’s definitely not an all access pass to smoke wherever, whenever, and whatever you want without consequenses, and it certainly doesn’t get you free marijuana! People who have medical marijuana licenses are (or should be!) followed closely by their physician to reduce the risk of misuse and/or abuse, and are subject to many restrictions on how much can be purchased and from whom. Like other controlled substances such as narcotics, medical marijuana is prescribed as a late to last choice treatment option. Many doctors won’t prescribe it at all, for reasons such as: the scientific evidence of benefits is still spotty (more being done every day though), high cost and inconvenience to patients, fears that it will be abused, inability to provide adequate supervision to patients, fear of losing medical licences if a patient’s prescription eligibility is questioned etc.
This is getting to be a lecture, so I’ll wrap it up with this: Don’t worry OP, good doctors are smart enough to filter the drug seekers and misinformed recreational users from the patients who will truly benefit from a prescription for medical marijuana. Don’t “lose your shit”, just tell them that they need to see a doctor not a social worker, and send them on their way. You may be frustrated, but let this be someone else’s problem!
Medical marijuana is a compromise between the warring parties, meant to pacify the two factions: pot heads and purists. Until someone grows some balls, we’ll have to do a dance in order to get some “legal” pot.
If you truly believe that marijuana should be a last choice of treatment makes you, Dandelion, part of the problem.
http://norml.org/library/item/introduction…
kwantlen college ( oh pardon moi, its UNIVERSITY now) in BC is offering a course in growing marijuana, following govt guideline for medicinal use. cool.