PATIENT PRIVACY SHOULD BE AT THE HEART OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA REGULATIONS

This past November, Arizona became the 15th state to adopt a medical
marijuana law. Even with medical marijuana laws in nearly a third of
the country, ever-increasing scientific evidence of efficacy, and
popular American support at over 80 percent, patients' rights are
still threatened. As long as medical marijuana remains illegal under
federal law, patients everywhere are vulnerable. In fact, the
discordance between federal and state laws makes it especially
important to protect the privacy of patients.

This week, the Colorado Department of Revenue Licensing Authority
will be hearing public comment on proposed regulations addressing
recent amendments to the state's medical marijuana law. Leading up to
these hearings, members of our organization in CO have reached out to
us with legitimate concerns about their privacy as patients.
Unfortunately, in the rush to regulate Colorado's burgeoning medical
marijuana distribution system, it is the privacy rights of patients
in particular that have so far been either ignored or disregarded.
While there are many issues that the Department of Revenue must deal
with, patient privacy should be at the forefront.

For example, it should be of concern to the State of Colorado that
law enforcement will have real-time access to surveillance systems
that will monitor literally thousands of patients and their purchase
of medicine, activity that is still illegal under federal law. Civil
libertarians and patient advocates are also concerned that the
proposed regulations allow an alarmingly large number of people,
including court clerks and their staff, to access records that should
be private and protected at minimum by the federal Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), if not by state law.

Just in case there was any question about the vulnerability of
patient records, one need only look to the State of Michigan, where
President Obama's Justice Department has issued subpoenas for several
registered medical marijuana patients. So far, the Michigan
Department of Community Health has refused to turn over the records,
but the Justice Department recently took the case into federal court.
As recently as 2007, under President G.W. Bush, the Justice
Department similarly subpoenaed the records of 17 registered patients
in the Oregon. Although the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program
successfully quashed the subpoenas, it's unclear whether such
resistance can be sustained across the country.

Colorado voters were very specific about penalties for the
unauthorized disclosure of patient information. Ballot Measure 20,
passed in 2000, clearly states that "any person...who releases or
makes public any confidential record or any confidential
information...without the written authorization of the marijuana
registry patient commits a class 1 misdemeanor." Patient privacy is
an important ethical and public health issue of our time, regardless
of whether patients benefits from the use of medical marijuana. By
the same token, we must not lose sight of upholding those rights when
the patients involved use marijuana as their medicine.