BAD MEDICINE

A Boulder man's claim that Boulder Community Hospital reversed its
position on allowing him to use his medical marijuana on the premises
has raised questions about how closely medical staff follow hospital
policies prohibiting cannabis use on site.

The man, who asked to have his name withheld because he fears
retribution, asserts that he and his wife were told by a BCH nurse in
April that he could smoke medical marijuana at the west end of the
BCH parking lot as long as he did it discreetly in his car. But he
claims that hospital staff backed off that stance after he used
cannabis in the parking lot during a Sept. 12 13 hospital stay.

The man says that when he left the hospital to smoke in the parking
lot, security guards thought he was leaving the premises against the
medical advice of his doctor, and BCH staff discharged him as a
result. He maintains that he needed to smoke the marijuana because he
was nauseous and vomiting at the time, and he is allergic to the
other medicines the hospital administers for such symptoms.

The man did provide Boulder Weekly with a letter from BCH outlining
concerns about the number of times he has been coming to the
emergency room for chronic pain and vomiting, with requests for
narcotic pain medication. The letter states that BCH will provide him
with hydration and anti-nausea medication, but will no longer give
him narcotic pain medication unless he is suffering from an "acute
medical condition."

Celanie Pinnell, a communications specialist for BCH, told Boulder
Weekly that the hospital complies with federal law, under which
marijuana is an illegal controlled substance, and as a result, no
type of marijuana is permitted on the premises, including the parking lot.

And yet the patient who was discharged on Sept. 13 claims that his
BCH doctor signed off on his medical marijuana card and is well aware
that cannabis is among the medications he takes regularly.

The situation raises questions about how hospital doctors deal with
what Pinnell acknowledges is a gray area - the legitimate use of
marijuana as a medicine by patients of a facility that is required to
treat it as an illegal drug.

Citing federal privacy laws, Pinnell would not comment on the man's
specific case, but she says no BCH employee can authorize marijuana
use, and smoking of any kind is prohibited on the entire BCH campus.

When asked whether it would be incorrect for a nurse to tell a
patient that he could smoke medical cannabis in his car in the
parking lot, Pinnell would not comment. She did say that hospital
staff are educated about the cannabis prohibition during their
initial training, and it is widely known that it is a non-smoking campus.

Pinnell says that no one employed by BCH may sign off on a medical
marijuana card, although doctors who have their own practices outside
the hospital may do so.

"If it is a hospital health care professional, no," Pinnell says. "If
they are an employee of the hospital, they would have to abide by federal law."

As for how BCH doctors deal with patients who use cannabis, she says
that is between the doc-tor and the patient.

"It might be kind of tricky," she acknowledges. "It's all very new."

In response to a question about whether BCH employees are expected to
report what the hospital considers illegal drug use, Pinnell says
that if a patient is registered with the state as a medical marijuana
user with the state, there shouldn't be a need for BCH doctors or
nurses to report cannabis use.

"I'd imagine they'd be on the phone a lot," she says with a laugh.

According to Pinnell, BCH does prescribe Marinol, a synthetic drug
that is chemically similar to marijuana and offers similar benefits.

Niles Utlaut, an ophthalmologist whose office is located in the
hospital, told Boulder Weekly that he didn't know what the BCH policy
is on medical marijuana, but it doesn't apply to him anyway since he
is not employed by the hospital.

Utlaut says that while cannabis does mildly reduce eye pressure, he
only recommends it to patients as a last resort, after they have
tried all other therapies. Still, he says, from a philosophical
standpoint, if a patient has severe, chronic pain or is terminally
ill, "if they think it helps, why the hell not let them use it?"
Timothy Tipton of Denver, a court-certified cannabis expert and
patient advocate, says he knows of no hospitals in the area that
permit the use - or even possession - of medical marijuana in their facilities.

About six years ago, he says, a card-carrying medical marijuana
patient brought her cannabis with her to Exempla Lutheran Medical
Center in Wheat Ridge, and when she learned of their policy
prohibiting it, she called Tipton to come get the medicine because he
was certified as her caregiver. When he arrived, he says, "security
got their underwear all up in a bind about it, and the police came
out because they didn't want me to take possession of her marijuana."

Things have improved somewhat since then, Tipton says, citing another
patient who brought his cannabis with him when he was admitted into
Porter Adventist Hospital for surgery last summer. Hospital staff
simply stored the marijuana with his other belongings, "so there
wasn't a major freakout like there used to be," Tipton explains.

That patient, Larry Shurtleff, told Boulder Weekly that while
hospitals are not as understanding of cannabis as they should be,
"there's really not much they can say about it," because it's legal
under state law.

Tipton, who is an instructor for the Cannabis Therapy Institute,
calls cannabis "the most benign substance on the planet" and says
other drugs prescribed by hospitals - not to mention the ailments
themselves - are much worse for one's health.

"The intake of synthetic drugs into the body is not something you
want long term," he says.

Tipton notes that for non-smoking medical campuses, there are
alternatives to smoking, from edibles to e-cigarettes that rely on
cannabis oil and emit only vapor, do not smell and deliver 200 doses
per cartridge.

He says medical marijuana patients can sometimes get away with using
cannabis by going to a smoking area at a medical campus, and one
patient "would go the next block over in the alley to smoke his
joint." Tipton even recalls a patient at BCH who used to go to his
girlfriend's van in the parking lot to medicate.

He says he sees similar issues in nursing homes, many of which do not
permit cannabis on the premises. Those that do have started requiring
patients to medicate in the privacy of their own rooms, so that they
don't disturb - or tempt - fellow residents. According to Tipton, at
one assisted living center, a medical marijuana patient was eating a
cannabis cookie when she was assaulted by another resident who wanted it.

Inquiries into cannabis policies at other local medical facilities
such as Longmont United Hospital and Kaiser Permanente did not yield
replies by deadline.

"It still hasn't reached the point where patients can medicate in the
hospital," Tipton says. "I think it's very sad that the traditional
medical community hasn't educated itself on this.

"We've had nurses who wigged out completely over hard candy."