SB423 DESTROYS PATIENT PRIVACY

Going to your doctor used to be a private matter, but not for
long.

What medication you need is not something the government has any
business knowing or dictating. Governments don't go to medical school,
people who become doctors do. Yet if Senate Bill 423, the medical
marijuana reform bill, becomes law, any physician certifying 25 or
more patients for the use of medical marijuana triggers an
investigation before the state medical board. No probable cause other
than recommending a patients' suitability to use medical marijuana
under existing law.

How many physicians in the state will subject themselves to a
career-blemishing investigation?

SB423 also requires patients to see two physicians before using
chronic pain as a qualifying condition. This is an unreasonable
expense on the patient and discriminates against patients with chronic
pain.

As an emergency physician, I've learned pain is relative. I've seen
patients in pain from a myriad of conditions, some serious, some not.
Pain is complex. One study reported 85 percent of women with chronic
pain have a childhood history of sexual or physical abuse. Which of
the legislators who concocted this bill has practiced medicine?

If Montanans were mad about Obamacare, they should be livid about
SB423. The bill is repeal in disguise, setting dangerous precedent
regarding the way medicine may be practiced in Montana.

And please, let's not forget that a mere 62 percent of the voter's in
Montana voted for reasonable and safe access to medical marijuana.

The medical marijuana program needs significant reform. The Governor
had until May 13 to veto the bill; it becomes law on July 1.

Michael Geci

Bozeman