Michiganders go to clinic seeking pot to dull pain Southfield


Doctors there to give OK




BY TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Getting high was
the furthest thing from their minds as some of Michigan's first legal
medical marijuana users lined a Southfield waiting room Thursday.

But they all shared one thing: pain.

"I
pray it helps the pain like they say," said diabetic cancer patient
Renee Collinsworth, 48, of Croswell. She is hoping to dull the pain
from a 1986 motorcycle accident in Ferndale. "It's not all about
smoking it, either."

Michigan
became the 13th state to allow the use of medical marijuana to treat
debilitating illnesses after voters approved it in November. A licensed
physician must grant approval before patients can use the otherwise
illegal drug.

The
patients waiting in the Southfield office either wouldn't or couldn't
get approval from their regular doctor. So they were at the opening of
the Hemp and Cannabis Foundation Medical Clinics' new location in
Southfield. THCF Medical Clinics, a nonprofit headquartered in Oregon,
employs seven doctors in eight states solely to sign off on medical
marijuana use.

"If
a patient's personal care physician is unwilling to sign off on their
registration application packet, we have one that will," Brian
Schreckinger, a spokesman for the group, said Thursday. Schreckinger,
28, said he became involved in the cause after excruciating pain from
breaking his ankle skateboarding kept him up at night.

"Sometimes I'd be complaining I'd just want my foot chopped off," he said.

John
Smith, 33, of Monroe was trying to find relief from back pain stemming
from a 1998 car accident. And he doesn't want to use painkillers
anymore.

"I've seen so many people dying on pills," he said. "And that's all the doctors push on you is the pills.

"Sometimes I think it's in my head, and they're just keeping me doped up on pills."

Charles
Synder III, 31, of Flint suffers from Nail Patella Syndrome, a
hereditary condition that causes kidney issues and painful bone defects.

"When
I use cannabis, it doesn't take it 100% away," said Snyder, who
collected signatures to help put a measure legalizing medical use of
marijuana on the November ballot. "It doesn't put me in a zombie-like
state like OxyContin."

Eric
Eisenbud, a licensed ophthalmologist, examined each of the patients
Thursday. He interviewed them, reviewed their medical records, checked
their blood pressure and listened to their heart before handing out
authorizations.

Eisenbud
said he joined the practice looking for more fulfillment than he was
finding in practicing ophthalmology. At the clinic, "I see those
patients every day that make me feel that I'm doing a worthwhile
endeavor," Eisenbud said.

By Jennie Miller

C & G Staff Writer

SOUTHFIELD
— The first medical marijuana clinic in the state of Michigan opened
Dec. 4 in Southfield, following the controversial proposal voters
approved last month making the drug legal in the state for medical
purposes.

Run by The Hemp and Cannabis
Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Portland, Ore.,
the clinic currently has two licensed physicians on staff.

The
Southfield clinic joins 17 others in the country run by THCF: four in
Oregon, four in Washington state, three in Colorado, three in Hawaii,
one in Nevada, one in California and one in Montana. Thirteen states in
the U.S. have legalized marijuana for medical purposes.

“We’ve
helped over 45,000 patients in eight states now, including Michigan
since we opened up there last Thursday,” said Paul Stanford, president,
founder and CEO of THCF. “We plan on expanding to other cities in
Michigan.”

Prospective patients are advised to contact the clinic by phone and have their primary care physician provide medical records.

“We
require they have medical records from another doctor and be under
another doctor’s treatment,” Stanford explained. “All of our patients
have to have another current relationship with either an M.D. or a D.O.
to meet their medical needs.”

After the medical
records have been reviewed, the patient meets with a nurse or doctor at
the clinic for a non-invasive physical examination.

If
it is determined that the patient meets the criteria and could benefit
from the use of medical marijuana, a prescription will be provided, as
well as an identification card that registers the patient in the
program and the appropriate documentation needed to submit to the state.

Twenty-five
patients were seen by a physician on the first day of the clinic’s
operation in the Southfield Town Center. Two additional patient days
will be held in December, and another two are scheduled in January.

“As those days fill up, we’ll add more days,” Stanford said.

But marijuana is not provided by the clinic.

“We
explicitly do not distribute marijuana itself,” Stanford said. “We
don’t have anything to do with the procurement. We cannot assist in the
procurement in any way.”

According to the new
law, a patient who has been prescribed medical marijuana by a licensed
physician can purchase, possess and/or cultivate up to 2 1/2 ounces of
marijuana or 12 plants.

“For a patient who is
authorized to have medical marijuana, they can purchase it on the black
market,” Sanford said. “The people who are selling it are breaking the
law. It can be dangerous. But there are a number of organizations out
there that are currently being set up to help patients. We cannot
directly provide them or help them obtain cannabis, but there are a
number of resources in the community that they can pursue.”

Sixty
percent of THCF’s patients across the country suffer from some sort of
chronic pain, said Stanford, adding that in 30-40 percent of the
chronic pain cases, the patients also have severe muscle spasms,
seizures, cancer, AIDS, glaucoma or severe nausea.

“Cannabis
is a very safe and effective medicine for a variety of ailments,”
Sanford said. “What we find overwhelming is that our chronic pain
patients are able to get off of large quantities of debilitating
narcotics that they’re on and improve their quality of life through the
use of cannabis. And they don’t have to be subjected to the high
associated with marijuana to get the relief, through the use of the
leaf instead of the flower.”

But not everyone feels so positive about the passage of the proposal in Michigan.

“I
am not happy the (proposal) passed,” said Southfield City Councilman
Myron Frasier. “But the vote passed and that’s the law now and I expect
that they will follow the law. … That’s the one thing about voting: The
majority wins and the losers have to understand that they did their
best but they came out the losers. But I’m also not happy that we
happen to be the first place in the state they opened up one of these
clinics.”

City Council President Don Fracassi had a lot of questions with regard to the operation of the clinic and others like it.

“I
opposed the issue to begin with,” Fracassi said. “But it was approved,
and I don’t know how they’re going to regulate it. I don’t know how
they’re going to tell who’s got pain and who doesn’t. Is it people who
have no hope and are just suffering from pain? Or is it people who are
hurt and are doing this instead of taking an aspirin? Is it the medical
profession seeking other ways to make more money? I don’t know. I’m
just against the whole thing. There is enough medication out there to
serve the purpose. I think it’s going to be misused. I don’t see
there’s enough controls.”

The city is going to conduct research to learn how to handle the operation of the clinic.

“We
can go to other states that have passed the marijuana law and find out
how they deal with it so we aren’t trying to invent the wheel all over
again,” Frasier said. “We’ll take advantage of what’s already out there
and find out the good things they’ve done to help control it and that
will get us years ahead rather than try to find out on our own.”

Fracassi has every confidence that the Southfield Police Department has the situation covered.

“I
expect the Police Department to follow all the regulations, rules and
laws, and they will do that to the utmost,” Fracassi said. “Any
violations to the law the Police Department will take care of it.”

For more information about the clinic, visit www.thc-foundation.com/michigan