Intermountain Healthcare Announces Approach On Prescribing Cannabis
Feb 14, 2019, 6:58 AM | Updated: 7:27 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Officials with Intermountain Healthcare announced their approach to how medical cannabis will be prescribed in Utah.
After lawmakers replaced Proposition 2 in 2018, Intermountain officials told doctors not to issue medical marijuana recommendations immediately. However, the law does allow doctors to make those recommendations now.
Intermountain’s Chief Physician Executive Mark Briesacher said physicians are ready to meet with patients who want to discuss medical cannabis as a possible treatment. After those meetings, he said providers can give letters to patients who have qualifying conditions defined by the Medical Cannabis Act.
Dr. Mark Briesacher, @Intermountain’s chief physician exec.: We’re ready for patients to meet with physicians & talk about medical cannibis as possible treatment.
After this, providers can give letter to patients who have qualifying conditions defined by UT Med. Cannabis Act pic.twitter.com/CoplZvGprq
— Caitlin Burchill (@newsyCaitlin) February 14, 2019
Briesacher said the letter would be a recommendation for treatment — not a prescription. He compared the process to a doctor helping a patient figure out the correct Tylenol or insulin dosage.
He said he shares the common concerns of treating illnesses with medical marijuana, and he said the new approach will be like monitoring any kind of new therapy.
A representative for the group Together For Responsible Use and Cannabis Education, or TRUCE, said patients who receive the recommendation letter will still have to travel to a state where cannabis is sold legally to obtain it — or they’ll have to get it illegally within Utah’s borders.
Another representative said the conversation is finally out of the realm of politics, though, and is into the realm of physicians and patients.
