Hospitals and medical cannabis

Date:  Tue, Sep 29, 2015 12:19 am

To:  csharp@ambercare.com, bruce.tassin@stvin.org, ron.stern@lovelace.com, john.cruickshank@lovelace.com, jhinton@phs.org

Re:  Medical cannabis patients admitted to your hospital

September 29, 2015

Ms. Catherine Rosacker-Sharp, CEO
csharp@ambercare.com
Ambercare Home Health & Hospice
2129 Osuna Road NE
Albuquerque, NM 87113

Mr. Bruce Tassin, CEO
bruce.tassin@stvin.org
CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center
455 St. Michael’s Drive
Santa Fe, NM 87505

Mr. Ron Stern, President/CEO
ron.stern@lovelace.com
Dr. John M. Cruickshank, Chief Medical Officer
john.cruickshank@lovelace.com
Lovelace Health System
601 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87102

Mr. James Hinton, President/CEO
jhinton@phs.org
Presbyterian Healthcare Services
9521 San Mateo Blvd. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87113

Dear New Mexico hospitals:

As a 30-year intractable pain patient, and an advocate for all chronic pain and medical cannabis patients, I am writing to ascertain your hospital’s plans to accommodate patients who are treating their medical conditions with cannabis.

Any patient using cannabis who is admitted to a hospital for more than a day or so will need accommodations to support their use of this treatment while in the hospital. Considering the current war against opioids and pain patients, I’m concerned that not only will doctors refuse to substitute pain medications for cannabis while patients are in the hospital, but also label these patients as drug addicts and refuse to treat their pain at all.

Without accommodations for medical cannabis patients at your hospitals, I can assure you that these patients will do all they can to avoid going to the emergency room and/or hospital, regardless of the seriousness of their symptoms. Since pain patients currently face overwhelming discrimination from the medical industry and most doctors, I can also assure you that many of them already avoid doctors and basic health care, myself included.

Hospitals must figure out a way to allow medical cannabis patients to treat themselves while in the hospital. To this end, please forward any and all plans each hospital has regarding this issue.

Sincerely,
Johnna Stahl
Albuquerque, New Mexico
painkills2@aol.com