These are all the bills as passed by the house.

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billengrossed/House/pdf/2011-HEBH-4834.pdf HB 4834

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billengrossed/House/pdf/2011-HEBH-4851.pdf HB 4851

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billengrossed/House/pdf/2011-HEBH-4853.pdf HB 4853

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billengrossed/House/pdf/2011-HEBH-4856.pdf HB 4856

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on House Bill 4851.

In the MMMA, the recommendation for the use of medical marijuana is made in the setting of a ‘bona fide’ doctor patient relationship.  The problem with the Act is that it does not actually define the term ‘bona fide’ because it is assumed everyone already knows what it is.  Everyone does know what it is, the problem is that not everyone has the same understanding, or applies it based on desired outcome, without considering the appropriateness of the setting.  Others exploit the lack of a formal definition for financial gain, or to ease prosecution of people they view as engaging in criminal activity by negating the protections of the MMMA.

While the proposed house bill 4851 does attempt to define the term ‘bona fide’ it does so in a rather rigid way without an understanding of the practice of medicine.

Well our website, www.drbobmmj.com, was spoofed by an out of country internet pharmacy.  They inserted some code to re-direct any search engine/external link click to their viagra shoppe....  If you enter the website directly, you are fine, and there is NO patient data on that site, only articles and forums.  The way it worked was simple.  They inserted some code through a security leak in the program we designed the website with, that redirected the search engines to their site.  Google sensed the change, and re-indexed the entire site, every page.  The result is that when you did a search for the site, or an outside link referenced the site, it was sent to the pharmacy website.

We've fixed the code, but until we can get the site re-indexed the internet will continue to 'see' the pharmacy until the site is re-indexed.  We are working with google webmaster to get that done, hopefully today.  We'll also upgrade the software to close the portal they found.  This site is rather highly rated, based on number of hits, time on site, and number of pages reviewed, so it was a tempting target.  Several other clinics and websites were also hit.

Sorry about the hassle, and this is a good time to join our facebook pages where we also announce our clinics, put up articles, and have discussions.  The links for those pages is:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/DrBobCertifications/

and be sure to add me as a friends at http://www.facebook.com/DrBob420?ref=tn_tnmn

Thanks for your patience, we are working on this now.

Dr. Bob

I had a very interesting experience this weekend.  I received an email from a physician.  The doctor was a surgeon that worked with Crohn's patients and those with chronic pain.  He was struggling with their chronic pain and was being asked about medical marijuana.  After much thought, he joined the MMMA website and read the posts I had written before I was 'banned' from the site for suggesting that standards of care were good and responding to the request of the legislature for guidance on what constitutes a 'bona fide' dr/pt relationship.  He contacted me because I seemed to know what I was talking about and he wanted to learn more about the program.  He made arrangements to meet me at my office in Monroe, MI for a clinic on Saturday to see certifications in action.

This physician was in a position of authority in 'Regular' medicine.  A chief of staff at his hospital in fact.  While he never used marijuana or wrote a certification, he had an open mind and wanted to learn more to solve a 'problem' he saw in his practice, chronic pain and high dose narcotics which were not doing the job of controlling the pain his patients suffered from.  He was looking for other options.  Since the medical board had recently published guidelines for the certification process, he felt he now had a 'guide' to follow and wanted to see it in action.  The guidelines were the tipping factor and what he was waiting for.

With the consent of the patients, the doctor sat in and participated in the certification visits. He asked questions- 'You were on oxycontin three times a day, now you take NO narcotics and that is why you are renewing your card????'.  He reviewed the records the patients brought with them, amazed at the history. The age of the patients also surprised him, most were in their late 40's and 50's, not the 18 year olds with the stubbed toes the media portrays them to be.  Success story after story came out, he listened intently and asked questions.  New patients, renewal patients, each one took away another stereotype. The certification process, unlike the 'signature mill' he was expecting, was professional, though, and based on records and objective findings, not 'affidavits' or other questionable medical practices portrayed in the media and from the AG.

After seeing most of the patients with me, he started the 2 hour drive home.  I am sure the drive gave him time to think about certifications and the medical marijuana program.  Like me, medical marijuana had been glazed over as a 'political football, an excuse for drug abuse' when he had his medical training.  Like me, he had listened to his patients and rethought his position on medical marijuana.  Like me, he viewed the guidelines from the medical board as a green light to 'consider' this as a viable option for treatment.  He viewed the guidelines as 'protection'- do these and you have done what the board expects you to do and you are safe.  It can be a part of your practice.