| Brittney Lohmiller/The Saginaw News |
| Dr. Bob Townsend meets with a patient in Saginaw, Michigan. “My patients didn’t tell me it helped them; they showed me by getting rid of narcotics,” Townsend said. |
One Michigan physician says that counter to what he was told in medical school, his patients have shown him that medical marijuana produces results.
“I, like most physicians, was taught that ‘medical marijuana’ was a political movement and marijuana has no medical use,” wrote Dr. Robert Townsend in the Lansing State Journal on Saturday. “But we were also taught to listen to our patients and base our decisions on evidence, not dogma.”
“Take chronic, severe pain — a qualifying condition for medical marijuana,” Dr. Townsend wrote. “IF my professors in medical school were correct, if marijuana is a Schedule I narcotic because it has no medical value, I would not expect marijuana use to result in a decreased need for pain medication.
| Bob Townsend |
| Dr. Bob, as he is known to his patients |
”Physical therapy, NSAIDs, work restrictions. I can’t seem to change the need for narcotics,” Townsend wrote. “Then, suddenly, they don’t need 120 Vicodin this month — they ask for 60. Next month it is only 30.
“When I ask them what’s different, they tell me they have a card, and obviously it is helping with their pain,” Dr. Townsend wrote. “I am interested in finding out more.
“My patients didn’t tell me it helped them; they showed me by getting rid of narcotics,” Townsend wrote.
“That is why I certify patients for medical marijuana, because I’ve seen it work. Show your doctors how it works for you.”
According to Dr. Bob, close-minded legislators are using misleading statistics to try to destroy Michigan’s 2008 medical marijuana law.
For more information on Dr. Bob’s work, visit www.drbobmmj.com.