BRAATAH & MEDICAL MARIJUANA- Q & A

http://braatah.com/medical-marijuana-laws-f-a-q/

Q: How many states have enacted medical marijuana laws since 1996?
A: Fifteen states and the District of Columbia — Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Complete summaries of each of these state laws may be foundhere. In 1996, Arizona voters approved a medical marijuana law, but the measure never took effect. District of Columbia voters also approved an initiative in 1998 with 69 percent of the vote. Maryland’s legislature passed a medical marijuana affirmative defense law in 2003. This law requires the court to consider a defendant’s use of medical marijuana to be a mitigating factor in marijuana-related state prosecution.
Q: Does the May 14, 2001 Supreme Court Ruling (U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative) affect these laws?
A: No. The legal use of medical marijuana by patients in these states is not challenged by this decision. The Court’s decision applies only to the manufacture and distribution of marijuana under federal law. The question of whether patients may legally use marijuana in states where such use is permitted was not at issue in this case.
Q: May physicians legally prescribe marijuana?
A: No. Although a handful of states have legislation authorizing doctors to prescribe marijuana (These laws were all passed in the late 1970s and early 1980s in expectation that the federal government would eventually reschedule marijuana.), doctors in these states may not legally do so without violating federal law. Federal policy dictates that physician who prescribes marijuana or other Schedule I drugs to a patient may be stripped of his or her federal license to prescribe drugs and prosecuted. In addition, physicians will not prescribe marijuana because there are no legal state supply sources from which a patient could attain the drug.
Q: May physicians legally recommend marijuana therapy to a patient?
A: Yes. On September 7, 2000, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled inConant v. McCaffrey that federal authorities may not sanction doctors who recommend marijuana to patients.
Q: May a state board of health legally distribute medical marijuana?
A: Yes, however the marijuana must come from the federal National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Between 1978 and 1986, NIDA distributed medical marijuana to six state research programs. NIDA presently dispenses marijuana for a San Mateo County, California medical research program and a California state program.
Q: May a state authorize medical marijuana clinical trials without federal approval?
A: No. All medical marijuana research must meet NIDA approval and receive funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Q: May a legislature reschedule marijuana for medical purposes under state law?
A: Yes, although this is largely a symbolic gesture. Rescheduling marijuana statewide does not protect patients from criminal prosecution under federal law or allow doctors in that state to legally prescribe the drug.
Q. Is there federal legislation pending to legalize marijuana as a medicine?
A: For the latest on state and federal medical marijuana legislation, visit NORML’s Take Action center.

Keith Orsini from American RSDHope 11/17 by Coach Marla | Blog Talk Radio

Keith Orsini from American RSDHope 11/17 by Coach Marla | Blog Talk Radio

I get treated humanely! (obviously not by my family)

  
I knew he wouldn't be able to help on a weekend.  But I am fucking exhausted, and was denied access to the ketamine at "Virginia Joke" and so I called to guage how he would respond.  Humanly/humanely! As usual.  He can't promise anything, but shit, I am about to look into the medicinal marijuana myself.  One or two hits a couple times a day?  Maybe not too expensive.  But I was staring down a SGB, and I think if I am to fend off this move, one must be done.

"Don't expect a ride from me," is what I am likely to hear from Dad.

I have to figure out another way.

VM--IMHO

IMHO: VIRGINIA MASON HOSPITAL IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST HOLES OF SHIT IN THE KING COUNTY AREA-OBAMACARE HAS MADE HIPPAA USELESS AND NOT WORTH THE PAPER IT'S PRINTED ON, AND I AM SICK TO FUCKING DEATH OF BEING TOLD ONE THING AT THAT HOSPITAL--WHO HAVE CLEARLY LABELED ME MENTAL, WHICH I AM NOT.  SO TO THIS, ANY PHYSICIAN WHO WORKS IN THAT PILE OF SHIT:  

YOUR STANDARDS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

SO DOES YOUR "PATIENT CARE"

THE ONLY REASON THAT PLACE IS STILL STANDING IS BECAUSE YOU HAVE GOOD SUPPORT STAFF--TO THEM I SAY THIS: THIS MAY COST ME MY PCP, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN SHIT TO ME BECAUSE HER QUALITY OF CARE MEANS THIS:

The Region  collected together every single stakeholder from kids, parents, nurses docs, techs of all kinds, to the people that warm the food and clean the linen. We were ensconced in said warehouse for the week to learn how to LEAN out our processes and design a hospital for the future. LEAN Methodology may sound a bit new age – it is in fact essentially using scientific method to drive change. Although the solution comes in trying to innovate to achieve radical goals that all center around increased efficiency:

from Virginia Mason

Day 1 began with some introductions where everyone got to voice their expectations and fears. I was there to represent both the adult and pediatric ERs. [They will both be in the bottom of the new building] . My fear was that we could have a brand new ER, but unless the rest of the system is engaged in change … our patients will still be waiting in [albeit nicer] beds.
The rules of engagement:
The Saskatoon Health Region  enlisted the support of John Black and Associates. Widely regarded as the best in the industry at  this process. Together with the architects the JBA folks helped facilitate our genius. Ground rules they set were:

The Process is NOT NEGOTIABLE

The Data is NOT NEGOTIABLE

The Footprint is NOT NEGOTIABLE

Hardly surprising considering their philosophy comes heavily steeped in Taiichi Ohno’s teachings:

from Virginia Mason

We then spent some time reviewing the concepts:
Innovate:
We saw how innovation [i.e. the process of thinking outside the box] plus design based on data gathering ultimately results in something that has the right form and function. Here’s the video about a California think-tank. It’s really inspiring!
Innovation requires chaos  – you can’t use the current pattern of thinking. The best innovations come from enlisting diverse teams. It also requires an acceptance of all ideas and then repeated trial and error until the ultimate form/function evolves.
Ever wondered why your QI folks always want you to PDSA? … well that’s how innovation happens!
Eliminate Waste:

from Virginia Mason

The   7 wastes “MUDA” when applied to health care are largely wait times, but we never stop to think about how far the patients [or us for that matter] walk about to achieve our tasks. We have one part of our current ER that is about 50 metres away from the main department! How about overstocking [tongue depressors because you couldn't find any once!] Ever done that? … umm …
Eliminating waste improves quality, safety and reduces cost. This is nothing new. Toyota has been doing it for decades. Other businesses have caught on and finally hospitals are looking to this new way of being [with good success].
The 7 Flows of Medicine:
The key to reinventing your processes is understanding the flow of patients, providers, medications, supplies, information, equipment and process engineering

In order to change processes, one must understand all that is involved in a patient encounter. Sounds complex? Well it is. You often hear that health care is a ‘complex beast to try and solve’. Well at least we now know what kind of beast it is. It’s a fish!

The Fish Diagram represents a patient encounter and all  the things that go into supporting the treatment of that patient from start to fishnish!
Here’s a closeup of all the people involved

What it means is that before you begin systems re-design you have to know who all the players are and they have to be involved in the process because they all bring skills, equipment and time to bear on patient care. It also ideal if you have to have intimate knowledge of the process. I always joke:

“AT VIRGINIA MASON, it’s hard to think outside the box if you don’t know what the box is”

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 http://liphelonglurnerdok.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/three-pee-day-1/

 

SOMEONE GET ME OUT!!!!!! BEFORE THE DOCTORS KILL ME!!!!!

I swear to GOD, I fucking hate this place!!!!

I am being played for a damned fucking idiot.  I have continued to loose weight while here.  But they are sending me home anyhow.  What?  I am supposed to fucking disappear?  This fucking hospital is the shits-and I am fucking sick to death of it.

What the shitty part of this hellhole is that it's not the techs, the NAC's, transporters, and other support staff that screw this place--the stupid doctors.  I want to  be taken care of by the medical system???  That is why they made up some bullshit excuse for people to say "Uh, 77 pounds since Thanksgiving, which has everyone concerned but them.  FUCK OFF, you stupid bastards!!!!!!!


My discharge instructions when I have had diarrhea (and every freaking day except the last-where my BM was 1000% normal--except the diarrhea, which Dr. Ingrahm didn't believe until I pulled out the pajama bottoms I was wearing when I couldn't get to the toilet in time and at 37 years old, I SHIT MYSELF!!!  Talk about humiliating, embarassing, and all that stuff, even though it was the naltraxone I knew would not just "kic

PAULA'S PAIN-ADDICT, ALCOHOLIC? NEITHER?

PAULA'S PAIN: This poster wrote, after removing anything I wrote in support of her position and BLOCKING me from her account (oh, the pain!!!  Girlie, I have RSD-PISS OFF until you get the surgery or bug bite that makes your life one of hospitals, etc....Her comment was, "I made this video to show that Paula is not a drunk (or a drug addict, like all us with RSD, LOL, shithead) but someone who has been through a lot. So I wish people shut up, cuz it's not true!!!!"

Hell, I may not archive this to January: Today sound good?  As I lay in a hospital for nearly a week after five months of being sick because I don't have the money resources to go to the "best of the best."  I bet the names KIRKPATRICK and/or SCHWARTZMAN are BOTH in her file, as is the words ketamine since if she has all these disorders that would knock an "average person flat on their back," and has "several such conditions."

Keep watching if you can stomach it.

HMMMM.....

I am going to stick this at the top=not to make an accusation: the number of surgeries she has had ALONE put her in front of the RSD "freight train" But to go out in public when clearly having taken probably much needed pain medication needs to put to discussion this issue:

Why are the EFFECTIVE medications and treatments ONLY available to those who have the freaking MONEY for them?  Wasn't "obamacare" supposed to level the playing field?  I'd bet my next check (well, not literally--I need ALL of that $906; many with RSD live on way less) she may not be drinking or drugging in a traditional sense, but isn't marijuana legal in California?" Ha! And as for "never being in withdrawal, except Schwartzman, any number of docs would LOVE to treat it any way SHE sees fit.  Maybe ketamine and hash?  Yum, yum! NOT!

Even if this video were taken out of context, poorly shot, or at the end of a long day, Lord knows, even seasoned and specially trained law enforcement officers can't tell (until a person has been arrested-thus giving them a POLICE RECORD to follow them, unless they can at least PAY an attorney to get it expunged) what it boils down to is one simple, innumerable and universal thing.  How many of these does she have (or anyone else)?

I saw the interview when I think it was ET interviewed her Rheumatologist who said she didn't take narcotics and had never been in withdrawal......Opiates and because she has so damnned many ooof these she can get anyone to say anything=Ok, tired, fine.

Rest, shithead!

An Invisible Illness, Not so Invisible, and Family: GET YOUR DOCUMENTS IN ORDER!!!!

I am sure many have heard the term before.  Good for you.

What have you done for a young person forced to use crutches?

A young woman who a spare pair of glasses would mean the world.

Or someone who is in constant, agonizing pain, every minute of every hour of every day

every week, of every month, of every year, and probably will be for life--and it is a burning physical pain-

one no one else can see, one no one else can see the flames shooting off her entire body;

And in the hospital, proper pain control being a dream to begin with,

A place you are supposed to have the right to have your pain is

relieved to the greatest degree possible-and to have that is a rarity-

Where conversations like this are commonplace:

You tell them you are in more pain-it is that you are a:

Nut case

Drug addict/druggie

Not to be trusted

If you still hurt; the doctor assumes you are drug-seeking-when 

Usually if you are diagnosed properly, dream on 

getting any other of your docs to buy it.

Or (my favorite); "You're way too young for all this!"

Your illness means you must be treated like a small child,

You ARE mentally a small child

You are mentally deficient

You cannot care for yourself physically or mentally

You cannot manage your own money/bills

You are basically, to sum up this part: a total fucking moron!

And when they find out otherwise-boy are they pissed!!!

Since my bipolar diagnosis, and any person with bipolar who goes through that period of irresponsible decision-making, or they get in trouble with drugs, alcohol or the law, hell, a combination thereof:   But "normies" do it also, and in fact, 

the halls of AA (and NA for the most part) are more full of "normies" than the "mentally ill."  

But the mentally ill seem to be treated better than those in 

chronic pain-or RSD:  and no one-when you're in a hospital does anything but question-

No matter how good of a history you have given them!

And why is there still such a stigma to it?

But really, I don't know which is worse:

1. Telling someone you have a mental illness, if that is the case
2. Telling anyone you suffer chronic pain, OR
3. BOTH

Well, as Mark Twain (and others later) said, "The reports of my demise are greatly over-reported," and though he read a favorable account of his life, if my family wrote it I would be a total lunatic who can't keep her house clean and what a pigsty it is, and that I am a boil on the butt of humanity. 

Naturally, I do the level best to ignore this sort of BS, and anyone reading such trash would know that no human being should be talked like that, and the exaggerations are as stupid as they sound. 

 

 But on the medical aspect, I am now well hydrated (it took almost the entire weekend, and I had a bunch of electrolyte imbalanced they had to correct before anything can be done. I admit I am a WEE BIT ticked off both with myself and the docs that (hospitalists) that idk-maybe they were in cahoots with the family-and yesterday was one GIANT nightmare (I have always made the request people let ME update and make calls, unless otherwise agreed (and it hasn't been), but if there was acompetition, but Saturday between 8am and 10am, seven calls were wearing me thin and I was not doing well, so out of the ROOM went the phone so my dad, even after several messages-as has been done in the past with success, he shows up-throws the light on, and like the vampire I am, in addition to bad allodynia for lights/sounds, claiming to understand (CRPS to that one) but my brain had been wonky on Friday because my electrolytes were severely whacked-I was also exhausted of FIVE MONTHS of being sick. 

Progression:

 

Sunday

Then suggests-no Happy Easter, zippo, that I am not able to "live independently" as if he has any say in the matter...so the RN's (God Bless them!) told him basically, "Get out-NOW, or Security will give you a hand." 

All the same, if he had made more than one or two attempts to help out in 5 months?  One of those times, I didn't have so much as a gallon of milk in the fridge-I told him (on a Thursday) as Instant Breakfast being about the only way for me to get calories.  He said, "I'll see you Saturday;" when the convience store around the block has gallons of whole milk for $2.99; so I starved for 2 days.  I slurped down the IB wheen I did get the following Sunday, and got sicker.

Then Asshole says I don't want to move.

But I won't look backwards. I, contrary to his claim CAN'T WAIT to get the HECK out of my apartment and into the new one, and another point he felt necessary to attack with: I have said nothing for WEEKS that I can't wait. No, my memory isn't PERFECT--but meds, etc are ALWAYS taken appropriately-very anal on that mark. 

Apparently though I am nearing 40 they think I am a hapless MORON? All I can say about this--now that we are back on track-is that a bit of advice: If you have "family issues," chances are if you became unable to make healthcare decisions, they WILL go to your next of kin (aka FAMILY) unless you LEGALLY specify otherwise. I can see them, and it's very troubling, they would not allow a peaceful "exit" and would either just withdrawl ALL CARE and allow me to go painfully--and that is so disturbing. I have a form type of document, but anyone else who would know, I would love to know what (and where) to go perhaps to make it specific, and I guess "Ironclad" that no one person that is either a blood relative or MARRIED to, etc, be involved in AND PART of my healthcare (or otherwise, psychiatric, for example; plug any holes, I guess? (sorry about the length).

 

I went to http://www.legalzoom.com.

My papers are in order for a:

• Power of Attorney
• Advanced Directive
• Living Will
• Durable Power of healthcare attorney.

 ALL DOCUMENTS, ESPECIALLY PERTAINING TO COMPETENCY MUST BE SIGNED BY A PHYSICIAN, WITTNESSED AND NOTARIZED!!!!

None of my famly is involved