Panelists answered the question: Should licensed pharmacies disburse medical marijuana?
Mary Zanger: “No, maybe 100 years ago marijuana might be physician prescribed but not today. Big Pharma or the drug industry has already thrown its dice into the fray. Brand named Marinol is purified standardized delta 9 tetrahydrocanabinol made by Eli Lilly available in pharmacies but seldom prescribed. Marijuana, a natural product meaning a combination of many drugs, sugars, starches, and oils, is not man made and therefore cannot be patented. No patent means no profit. Rather than big agriculture, small organic farmers provide the demand for the crop. Without big business funding clinical trials, collecting data, studying effects, managing doses and side effects, nothing is provided to educate physicians, No profit means no reason for the money industry to be involved. The marijuana culture will evolve as it has, hitting bumps in the road but paying its way with taxes and licenses, legalized and controlled so as to do no harm to society as a whole.”
Ruth Erickson: “A professional pharmacist dispensing medical marijuana with an approved doctor’s prescription could hopefully legitimize the process away from the many questionable prescriptions and present dispensers!”
Nants Foley: “I think medical marijuana control is a joke. One gets a Dr. Feelgood to say it is necessary and there it is. Why not just legalize it?”
Richard Place: “If you’re going to approve it for sale it should be treated like any other drug. I believe you would have better control over it also.”
Marty Richman: “Yes, that’s the logical way to dispense ‘medical marijuana.’ The pharmacy option will ensure safety, effectiveness, control and availability.”
