Can my Doctor See What type of Medical Marijuana I Purchase?
Barbara Asked
Can my pain management doctor see what type of medical marijunia I purchase?
Summary
Answer
Hi Barbara and thanks for the question. The answer depends on what State you're located in because different states have different laws surrounding medical cannabis.
In New York, for example, all purchases of medical cannabis products are monitored through the State's Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) or I-STOP. This is a tool the state developed to help combat diversion. Diversion just means illegally distributing or abusing the drug a doctor prescribes outside of their intended purpose (for treatment).
Every time you make a purchase at a dispensary in New York State the purchase history gets uploaded to a State database that any doctor with a valid DEA registration number can access and look you up using your name and date of birth.
In fact, before issuing a medical cannabis certification (or "med card") your doctor must look you up in the State PMP. This process is built into NY's medical cannabis law to ensure prescribers monitor their patients' controlled substance purchase histories.
New York is not the only State that does this. Ohio and Mississippi do something similar as well.
New York's Department of Health has actually conducted research using this data that is collected under State law. The Department of Health was able to look at PMP data and found that patients certified for medical cannabis actually were prescribed lower dosages of standard pharmaceuticals used for pain management (like opioid drugs and NSAIDs). Pretty cool!
Anyway, I hope this helps answer your question! Please feel free to reach back out at any time by submitting another question here or by typing "CannabisQuestions.Health" in your browser's address bar.
- NYS Guidance for Medical Cannabis Practitioners NYS Guidance for Medical Cannabis Practitioners.
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