This was a recurrent question after the medicinal marijuana bill was passed last year. I have had people ask if just living here was enough, to which I politely laugh…

 

Proposition 2 (medicinal marijuana) in Utah has been fraught with challenges since it was voted in by popular vote. In Utah, the legislature is allowed to “adjust” voter propositions usually to suit the needs of the Mormon church. So, the regulations and strange bureaucracy have significantly increased.

 

The reality is that the state has demanded that providers take a $279 course on cannabis before we can write recommendation letters. It is, of course, designed to make providers think before they prescribe and provide information about the law. Two hundred and seventy-nine dollars? The best part is the $300 additional dollars in March when the provider portal comes online, allowing a provider to be registered to recommend cannabis to a patient. Sound confusing? Yeah, same here, until I realized it really is a financial barrier to make providers not want to sign up to recommend marijuana.

 

When I say recommend instead of prescribing, it is to absolve from violating Federal law. Federal law prohibits the use of marijuana medicinally and recreationally.

 

Like I said above, I see it as an attempt to make the process so frustrating that providers will not want to jump through the hoops to get the certifications. If they are not jumping through hoops, shoveling out more cash to the state.

 

Nursie poo will, of course, be jumping through those hoops to obtain the certification, because I would like to be able to “recommend” this treatment for my patients.  

 

While I would like to say that I can see the need for all of this, I cannot. I get the “skittishness” of lawmakers about the potential legalities regarding medicinal marijuana. I am over the moral bullshit that is thrust upon us.

 

The DOH “training” that could put insomniacs to sleep.

 

The best part was the fact that Utah Senate majority leader Evan Vickers (R District 28) distributed 34% of Iron County’s opiates through two of his Cedar City pharmacies and had an instrumental role in the Prop 2 compromise that provides cultivation, processing, medical recommendation, and patient use of medical cannabis.

 

This is from Medium and can be found here. The region has also been experiencing an alarming increase in heroin overdoses.

 

Jesusrollerbladingchrist, The dude that is the opiate pusher in Iron county, is opposing sensible use of marijuana? In honesty, it seems like a conflict of interest at best, it looks pretty fucking ethically criminal.   

 

The compromise, and specifically the state’s controversial “Central Fill Pharmacy,” of which Sen. Vickers was a key architect. The Central Fill will grant the state a virtual monopoly over the distribution of cannabis in most of the state through county departments of health.

According to documents released by Mormon Leaks in 2018, the LDS Church-owned at least $15 million worth of Cardinal Health shares at that time.

 

For us in Utah, it is, of course, business, as usual, a theme that is getting to be more common in healthcare than most providers want to deal with. “Lawmakers” who want the law bent to favor their business interests. Unfortunately, Utah has no such protections against legislative conflicts of interest in the state constitution, so go ahead, Senator Vickers, keep pushing out other medications while continuing to push opiates. 

 

Now I know the arguments about legal v. illegal and how this is a legitimate industry. Opiates are also a legal industry under a considerable level of fire for its business practices and, on the face of it, is unethical. Also, as usual in Utah, we have proof that a church that avoids millions a year in taxes by its non-profit status. It is making out like a bandit on these changes to the law. As well as the push by Senator Vickers to restrict the competition. This is all while, of course, being a “religion” and not being taxed.

 

Senator Vickers’ office refused to comment. Also not a shock in a state where both state and national elected officials refuse to even meet with their local constituents. I would say that most are afraid lately that they will be greeted by torches and pitchforks.

 

I wish I could say we can do better. I think that we have lost the ability to hold anyone accountable. Mormons are told by their church to vote for the dudes with the R after the name, although the church, of course, denies it. Legislators are “summoned” to the church offices every year to hear the church’s “opinion” on any proposed legislation. We are a state of conflicting interests, it will never change.

 

I will still be recommending patients use medicinal marijuana in March and sincerely hope my friends that are healthcare providers do the same. I would also recommend that people like Senator Vickers be held more accountable for their ethics (ha, a pipe dream I want my unicorn in purple also), but that will, of course, never happen.

 

Anyhow, be the kind of person your mom and your dog think you are.