http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/26/brothers-grimm-photos-kilian-schonberger_n_6549708.html
Day: 01/26/2015
Alcoholics Anonymous Tax Deductible, Medical Marijuana Is Not
http://www.hightimes.com/read/alcoholics-anonymous-tax-deductible-medical-marijuana-not
Unfortunately, this puts the over one million patients in the United States currently using medical marijuana at a disadvantage, especially since the annual cost of cannabis medicine can be upwards of $6,500, with no health insurance coverage…
Why Aren’t American Veterans Allowed to Treat Their PTSD with Medical Marijuana?
http://www.vice.com/read/when-will-americas-war-veterans-with-ptsd-get-weed-126
His home country Israel currently has a progressive stance on medical cannabis for soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces. IDF reserve troops who hold a medical marijuana prescription are allowed to use it even while on active duty, a policy in line with Israel’s efforts to liberalize medical marijuana in light of new research…
In 2010, disabled Air Force veteran Michael Krawitz and his advocacy group, Veterans for Medical Marijuana, publicly campaigned to change the VA’s marijuana policy. Reforming federal law was a virtual impossibility in the short run, but Krawitz sought to work with the VA to establish a middle ground that would allow veterans to use cannabis in conjunction with prescriptions and keep doctors on the right side of federal law. The VA responded by issuing a new directive that explicitly prevented doctors from cutting state-level medical marijuana patients off from prescription drugs, and instead requires monitoring of all cannabis consumption. Doctors are still barred from recommending or prescribing cannabis, but within the bounds of the law, this is pretty much the best the VA can do…
And last year, the House of Representatives rejected a measure that would have allowed VA doctors to recommend medical marijuana to patients. That bill’s sponsor, California Democrat Dana Rohrabacher, presented a similar measure in November called the Veterans Equal Access Act. Its passage is a tall order considering the Republican takeover of Congress.
For now, veterans with PTSD who have a medical marijuana prescription can balance their pharmaceutical drugs with cannabis self-medication. But that still leaves those who live in medical marijuana states that don’t include PTSD as an “approved condition” for cannabis treatment, along with vets in the 27 states that still prohibit cannabis completely. That’s thousands of people who will continue to be prescribed a host of pills and all the side effects that come with them rather than a plant that offers the prospect of at least some relief…
More junk science from Patricia Cavazos-Rehg
This is the same researcher who did a smaller study last year to “assess the content of ‘tweets’ and the demographics of followers of a popular pro-marijuana Twitter handle,” and came up with the following conclusion…
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2015/01/25/pro.marijuana.tweets.are.sky.high.twitter
Examining a random sample of almost 7,000 tweets from these accounts, the researchers found that 77 percent were pro marijuana, 5 percent were against pot, and 18 percent were neutral.
People tweeting pro-marijuana messages had a total of more than 50 million Twitter followers, about 12 times more than those tweeting anti-marijuana messages, the researchers noted…
Aw, the anti-drug groups are losing the social media war… and they’re unpopular, too.
Too bad, so sad.
Woman finds 13-year-old marijuana stashed in van
http://krqe.com/2015/01/26/woman-finds-13-year-old-marijuana-stashed-in-van/
APD has disposed [of] the pot the family found in the van…
It’s such a waste to dispose of perfectly good medicine. Why can’t the police be more environmentally conscious? (Maybe one day, destroying medicine will be a crime.) Can’t the police have it tested, then give it to the dispensaries for distribution to poor patients at no cost? Would that be so hard?
Auto insurers gouge lower-income safe drivers, study finds
In the 15 cities CFA surveyed, annual premium quotes by the nation’s five largest auto insurers — State Farm, GEICO, Allstate, Progressive, and Farmers — were almost always more than $900 and were usually more than $1,500.
In a related national opinion survey undertaken by ORC International for CFA, nearly four-fifths of respondents (79%) said that a fair annual cost for this auto insurance coverage was less than $750. One-half (50%) said that a fair annual cost was less than $500…
The report faulted state governments for allowing major auto insurers to charge higher premiums based on income and other factors not directly related to safety…
“Any economist will tell you that price ranges greater than 100% for essentially the same product reveal lack of true price competition,” noted CFA’s Brobeck…
“As well as denying economic opportunity, these high premiums pressure many lower-income drivers to break the law by driving without insurance,” Hunter said. “We’ve estimated that one-quarter to one-third of these drivers have let their policies lapse or never purchased them in the first place, because they confront the Hobson’s choice of paying for insurance or more basic necessities like food, rent, or electricity.”
Facebook God has a point…
Anita Wu said: I voted for Miss Pluto. But she was disqualified because apparently only contestants from ‘real planets’ are eligible.
Has University Of NM Found The “Holy Grail” Of Stopping Opiate Abuse ?
http://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=8855
http://www.dailylobo.com/article/2015/01/2015-01-26-nm-opioid-use-down
HSC pain center lowers state opioid abuse
With the help of a Health Sciences Center research group, New Mexico’s accidental opioid overdose deaths and addictions are down for the first time in years…
Funny, overdoses in New Mexico are usually either “accidental” or “unintentional,” and no one wants to publicly connect drug overdoses with the increased suicide rate. And how does one calculate the addiction rates in the state of New Mexico? Another survey?
A new study released by the UNM Pain Consultation and Treatment Center shows that a new state-mandated training program for doctors and clinicians is resulting in significantly fewer opioid painkillers being prescribed to patients, which has led to less addiction and fewer overdoses…
Other states have attempted to tackle the problem of prescription opiate addiction in a number of ways, often with mandated dosing thresholds — meaning doctors and clinicians were only allowed to prescribe a certain amount of total milligrams per year. This situation led some doctors to feel too restrained in the way they treated their patients, Katzman said.
So Katzman and others working on the state Senate bill decided to go in a different direction: mandating ongoing pain management training instead…
Since beginning the training, Katzman and her team have been collecting data on prescription rates and overdose deaths. Their research paper, titled “The Public Health Crisis of Chronic Pain and Addiction — Rules and Values,” showed a 16 percent drop in the morphine milligram equivalent prescribed in New Mexico between 2012 and 2014, a 16 percent drop in the valium milligram equivalent, a decline in the overdose death rate and a significant decline in the dispensing of high-dose opioids, like 80 milligram Oxycontin pills…
Our hypothesis is that this education has been very effective…
You know, education is usually effective. As to whether this increased education effort has been “very” effective, I wouldn’t go that far. (After all, most of this education is information doctors should already know.) For instance, additional education about prescription medications and additional treatments for chronic pain don’t really address the heroin side of this problem.
This is about supply. First, the DEA has constricted the supply of prescription medications, so that would be one reason for a reduction in overdoses. The additional reduction in prescribing by doctors themselves also reduces the supply. Less drugs, less people taking them, less overdoses.
But none of this information tells us how pain patients are being treated in New Mexico. The few comments from actual patients that I’ve come across describe things like signs at doctor’s offices that say they don’t treat pain patients.
New Mexico has always been a state where alternative treatments were available, and the University of New Mexico’s pain program includes treatments like acupuncture. But I don’t know too many people living in New Mexico — one of the poorest states in the U.S. — who can afford the “integrative” treatment approach.
And while the University can shout the success of these programs from the rooftops, until I hear directly from patients, I’m reserving my judgment.
Of course there is no mention of the state’s Medical Cannabis Program being part of the reason for the reduction in overdoses in this state. The reduction the state is seeing right now is minimal, and could be so much better if the cannabis program was more affordable, accessible, and inclusive. With legalization, the overdose rate would decrease even further.
So, has this education program made a difference? I guess it depends on what kind of results you’re looking for… How has it affected pain patients? It appears no one wants to report on that issue.
We Can’t Explain Why Our Prices Are FIFTEEN TIMES Other Pharmacies ?
http://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=8840
Fradkin is on Medicare, the federal health-care program for those over 65, but he does not have supplemental drug coverage, known as Medicare Part D. That’s because he’s a veteran, and he can get his prescriptions filled reasonably at a local VA clinic. In the past, he’s had his generic Lipitor filled at the VA clinic for $9 a month…
Obviously This Is One Of Major MMJ Players ?
http://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=8835
State Of Texas Forcing Epileptic Man To Suffer, Facing Jail Time For Trying To Self-Medicate
Port Arthur, Texas – Epileptic and self-prescribed medical marijuana patient Jeremy Bourque is facing jail time for growing 3 marijuana plants that were intended to be used for personal medical consumption…
Under comments:
Jury Nullification
All Things Chronic 
Boilerrph87
January 26th, 2015 at 20:43