01/30/2019    Gary S Smith, DPM

Medical Marijuana and Podiatry (Allen Jacobs, DPM)

I realize this is a controversial subject with
many points of view. I am not against the
legalization of Marijuana. I do believe that
doctors and users need to be better educated
because any view that comes across anti-pot
seems to be a source of contention. First of
all, there is no such thing as "medical
marijuana". Any ailment you have from terminal
cancer to depression and pain, marijuana will
make you feel better.

Snorting coke, shooting heroin and over using
opioids will make you feel better as well. This
doesn't mean they are the best ethical choice of
treatment. Ninety percent of heroin addicts say
marijuana was their gateway drug. If you
prescribe marijuana and a person becomes a
heroin addict shouldn't you be held liable?

In my practice of 28 years and 20,000 patients
in a very depressed area I have had several
patients that had used marijuana daily. It's
come to the point where they don't tell me they
use pot, I tell them. If you are a man and use
pot daily you will have serious impotence
problems by age forty. In your forties, you will
begin getting neuropathy. By the time you are
fifty, you will have complete neuropathy in your
feet and legs and be diabetic because smoking
pot daily causes diabetes.

In your sixties, you will go on dialysis. All of
you have seen these patients. When you have a
diabetic patient with complete neuropathy but
normal skin texture, palpable pulses, and normal
hair distribution they are most likely a daily
marijuana user. If you prescribe marijuana to a
patient, even if the person is well on their way
to these symptoms, you will be held liable.

Gary S Smith, DPM, Bradford, PA

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