Our clinic schedule for October is out, we have additional clinics now in Ada, Greenville, and Cheboygan/Indian River to expand our service into the Grand Rapids and Cheboygan areas.  We also should be adding a pain management office in the UP this month to start in November.

As part of our expanded range of services, we are adding web design and graphics to our office in Saginaw as a stand alone company, the first project they have is to design websites for each of our travel clinics.  Those should come on line this month and you will be able to go to those sites for location specific information.  As a courtesy, we will offer design and hosting services for compassion clubs to help them get the word out- these organizations typically do not operate for a profit and have little spare cash, so we will support them for free as a service to the MMJ community.  We'll just use them as showcases for our services for paying customers both in and out of the MMJ community.  Contact the Saginaw Office at  989-317-3420 to see if we can help your club.

Dr. Bob

We've launched a new website devoted to our travel clinics, www.drbobcertifications.com to concentrate on our local certification clinics. Soon each travel clinic will have its own webpage devoted to local information. We'll have it under construction over the next couple of weeks, so check back frequently.

Thanks to all our patients, we appreciate the opportunity to serve you in your local communities.  Be sure to check your expiration dates. We'll also be offering coupons for certification discounts to our registered users soon, so register for the website- you will only be able to see the coupon if you are signed in.

Dr. Bob

Traverse City Defense Attorney Shawn Worden sucessfully defended the bona fide dr/pt relationship in the case of Robert Ward in Antrim Co Court 9-17-12.  Mr. Ward had been arrested for felony manufacturing of marijuana.  Mr. Ward was arrested after 23 plants were discovered in a secured enclosure on his property.  The defense opted to use the section 8 defense rather than section 4 due to the fact the enclosure was not covered, so the prosecution attacked Mr. Ward's card by quesitoning the 'bona fide' doctor patient relationship.

The case revolved around Dr. Robert Townsend (Dr. Bob), the certifying physician.  Dr. Townsend was qualifed as an expert at the onset of his testimony without objection from the prosecution.  He was then questioned by Attorney Worden as to his visits with Mr. Ward, the records he reviewed, his follow up procedures, and the criteria for certification, the elements of a Bona Fide relationship, and the methods used to determine whether the patient was growing a 'sufficient amount' of marijuana to meet his needs to qualify for 'medical use'.

Key points of Dr. Townsend's testimony in this case included the following:

1. Dr. Townsend began treating narcotic addiction with suboxone in 2006, long before the MMMA passed.  He began to use marijuana with his patients as a direct extention of this treatment, as the indications for medical marijuana matched the symptoms of narcotic withdrawal in his patients.  In addition to marijuana certification, Dr. Townsend continues to treat narcotic addiction and chronic pain in his medical clinics demonstrating his practice is diversified and not limitied to making recommendations under the MMMA.  Dr. Townsend meets with EVERY patient.  There are no through the mail certifications where the patient and physican do not meet.
2. Records are required to establish the diagnosis on each of Dr. Townsend's patients.  This is standard medical practice in a 'consulting practice'.  If patients do not have medical records they are required to get them and not certified (there are some exceptions, but they are clearly exceptions in extrordinary circumstances).  A key measure of 'enough' medical records is that an outside physician reviewing the same records reviewed by Dr. Townsend would reach the same conclusions about the patient's medical conditions as Dr. Townsend did (the results are reproducible and stand up to peer review)

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Why may the AG be going through your certification records?

"When he first began performing evaluations for the (program,) he charged $250 for persons who did not bring medical records to the first visit and $200 if a person did. Respondent no longer requires prior medical records when evaluating persons." and "negligence, incompetence, a lack of good moral character, failure to respond to a subpoena, failure to maintain medical records and "promotion for personal gain of an unnecessary drug."

Very strong words coming from the AG and reflective of the problem HB 4851 (the bona fide dr/pt relationship bill) was written to address.  Who the charged doctor is isn't the issue, it is what the AG is zeroing in on to attack the process of certifications and the Act in general.  

People such as I who are involved in the MMMA from a public policy standpoint don't always argue the right and wrong of the issue.  My job as a certification physician and someone involved in the overall policy of the MMMA is to keep my ear to the ground is to be aware of what is going on, and how I can protect my patients and the Act.  I first addressed this in Sept 2010 after the O'Connell concurring decision in the Redden case.  I've revisited it several times since.

What effect will these charges have on the patients of this physician?  Who knows?  What is known is that since the latest SC ruling (the plain language ruling), patients are not as easily barred from mounting a defence of their choice of medical cannabis in court.  The next easiest way to defeat the defense is to challenge the dr/pt relationship.  I personally am involved in one such case this week, and anticipate being successful in my defense- wrong patient, wrong records (over 4 inches of records), and wrong doctor to make that challenge.

Let's see what the lesson of the charge is, what specifically are they going after?

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