From this article it sounds like Will Humble and the tyrants at Arizona Department of Health Services are doing everything they can to prevent people from legally using medical marijuana.
The cops and prosecutors tell us they would rather let 100 guilty people get away then have one innocent person be sent to prison.
But that is a bunch of BS.
Sadly it seems to be exactly the opposite of that and for every 100 innocent people that are railroaded by the cops and falsely sent to prison 1 guilty person gets away. And of course that statement is based on the large number of cases where DNA is proving innocent people were railroaded by the cops and sent to death row for crimes they didn't commit. They often spend 10, 20 or 30 years in prison before DNA tests prove they are innocent. A little over a month ago on September 28, 2012, Damon Thibodeaux, a Louisiana death row inmate, was the 300th prisoner free from prison because DNA test proved he was framed for murder.
I suspect the same is true with Will Humble crack team of marijuana haters in the Arizona Department of Health Services. They would rather prevent 100 people who are legally allowed to use medical marijuana from using it, if it means they can prevent one person who isn't legally allowed to use marijuana from getting a prescription.
One interesting question for a lawsuit would be to ask does Will Humbles team of doctor goons review all the other prescriptions written by doctors for narcotics to see that the doctors are not writing invalid prescriptions.
I suspect that Will Humble and Jan Brewer are singling out people with marijuana prescriptions or recommendations as they are called.
Medical-marijuana report offers insight into users, doctors
By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Nov 8, 2012 10:54 PM
Arizona health officials want to strengthen the controversial medical-marijuana program to crack down on physicians who improperly recommend marijuana, train physicians who write most certifications and make it easier to revoke patient cards if health officials suspect wrongdoing.
Health officials also want to study how effective marijuana is in treating debilitating conditions, such as cancer, and examine whether marijuana affects opiate dependency, impacts vehicle-traffic injuries and impacts pregnancy outcomes and breastfeeding. Such studies would require changes to the law, which restricts the scope of information state health officials can obtain from physicians and patients. [And of course the politicians are NOT allowed to make any changes to the law because of a prior voter initiative which was passed after the politicians passed a law revoking Arizona's first medical marijuana law. So the question is why is Will Humble wasting our tax dollars doing these studies?]
The recommendations are contained in the state’s inaugural report of the medical-marijuana program, approved by voters in 2010 to allow people with certain debilitating medical conditions, to use marijuana. They must obtain a recommendation from a physician and register with the state, which issues identification cards to qualified patients and caregivers.
The new report covers April 2011 through June and includes for the first time, in a comprehensive format, a detailed breakdown of the types of physicians that are recommending medical marijuana.
During that time period, the Department of Health Services received 41,476 applications — both renewals and new submissions — and approved about 98 percent. Because of the report’s time frame of more than a year, some cardholders may have been counted twice in that number —when they initially applied and when they renewed their annual card.
There were 29,804 total active cardholders reported, which included 28,977 qualifying patients and 827 caregivers.
Most patients cited one medical condition while less than a quarter reported two or more conditions. About 70 percent of patients cited “severe and chronic pain” as their only medical condition.
The report states that 475 physicians recommended marijuana for the 28,977 patients. Ten of those physicians certified nearly half of all patients.
Eighty naturopaths, who combine traditional medicine and natural medical approaches to treat patients, certified 18,057 patients while 332 medical doctors certified 8,574 patients. Sixty-one osteopaths certified 2,329 patients and two homeopaths certified 17 patients.
State Department of Health Services Director Will Humble said he was disappointed that so few physicians were writing so many marijuana recommendations.
“I had hoped that we wouldn’t have this tight concentration of specialties who are writing these,” he said.
Humble said the numbers raise concerns that patients are seeking recommendations from “certification mills” instead of primary-care doctors who are generally more well-versed about individual patients’ medical histories. He said medical doctors may be less willing to write marijuana certifications because they didn’t study marijuana as a treatment in medical school. [And of course medical schools don't teach doctors how and when to prescribe marijuana because it's still and illegal drug per Federal law, so we have a Catch 22 here. And I suspect Will Humble hopes that that Catch 22 can be used prevent doctors from writing medical marijuana prescriptions]
Humble said the figures bolstered his belief that state health officials should develop intense training for high-volume certifiers, along with licensing medical boards to ensure physicians are not breaking the law. He also wants to be able to more quickly identify physicians who are improperly recommending pot.
Humble also wants to explore the idea of temporarily suspending patients’ cards if officials suspect wrongdoing and want to investigate. [So Will Humble wants patients to be assumed guilty till they prove their innocence. That's typical of government tyrants!] Currently, cards remain active until a final decision is made, “thus, providing immunity to potential misuse” of the law, the report says.
His agency will soon spend more than $1.2 million to, in part, weed out physicians who improperly recommend marijuana to patients as well as to help train marijuana-dispensary staff, hire private accountants or auditors to examine dispensary financial statements and hire private attorneys to assist the department with legal issues arising from the program. [Wow, it seems like Will Humble is doing everything possible to flush Prop 203 which is Arizona's medical marijuana law down the toilet]
The ADHS will also continue to fund a $200,000 contract with the University of Arizona College of Public Health to, in part, review published research about the effectiveness of marijuana in treating medical conditions.
Humble believes the expenses will help the state keep the medical-marijuana program as “medical” as possible.