Israel: Family Doctors Given Temporary License To Prescribe Medical Marijuana 09/17/2014 IsraelMedicalCannabisInJars Israels Health Ministry, attempting to deal with a heavy load on pain clinics, has announced that family doctors will temporarily be allowed to write medical marijuana prescriptions for their patients. The new rules will allow family physicians to write the medicinal cannabis prescriptions under two conditions, reports Ido Efrati at Haaretz: when it is an extension of an existing treatment, and keeping to an existing dosage. About 18,000 Israelis hold permits for using medical marijuana, with this number expected to grow to 40,000 by 2018. Demand for cannabis in Israel has been growing steadily, and the list of conditions for which it is authorized has also been growing. Medical marijuana was recently authorized for the treatment of certain types of pediatric epilepsy, as well as in cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), along with the other diseases and conditions for which patients are allowed to use cannabis. Israeli health authorities have suggested before that family doctors -- who work in health maintenance organization (HMO) clinics -- should be able to write cannabis prescriptions. But the idea has met with fierce opposition in the past, both from some of the doctors themselves and from the HMOs. The Health Ministry had decided in its new medical marijuana regulations to add 10 doctors to those allowed to write such prescriptions to the 20 doctors already permitted to do so before. The ministry had thought this would be enough to relieve the pressure on the doctors in the pain clinics, and to reduce the long waiting times for patients to see these doctors. The Association of Family Doctors in Israel and the HMOs were surprised to hear of the new regulations. No one asked us; there was no discussion or consultation on the matter, huffed family doctors association chairman Dr. Shlomo Vinker. The ministry appears to have issued the regulations on its own, and that is not acceptable to us. The previous attempt to have family doctors write marijuana prescriptions failed. Prof. Ronnie Gamzu, then director of the Health Ministry, had sent the HMO directors a letter asking for names of family doctors to be authorized to write the prescriptions, but instead he was met with firm opposition. The Leumit HMO told Gamzu at the time that it objected to increasing the number of physicians allowed to write marijuana prescriptions, as it supposedly provided a further burden and a very dangerous slippery slope. Leumit claimed the use of medicinal cannabis should be very limited and measured, and that the authority to prescribe it should remain in the hands of just a few specialists and the government, not in the hands of community doctors. Leumit also claimed pain clinics were flooded with people asking for medical marijuana. The HMO claimed that doctors were being pressured, threatened and even attacked physically by patients demanding cannabis for their ailments. The Health Ministry doesnt yet know when the new rules will take effect, or for how long. By Steve Elliott - Hemp News hemp.org/news/IsraeliHMOsCanPrescribeMarijuana
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 01:53:11 +0000
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