A California M.D. says it’s time to repeal marijuana-prohibition laws. ‘At long last and practically against my will, I am doing the right thing,’ writes Daniela Drake.
I hadn’t written a pot prescription in over a year, so I was furious when I was subpoenaed again in 2010, I think. This time, a patient had been caught growing marijuana and had somehow managed to get in trouble with the law. As his physician, I was being called to support the patient’s claim that he needed weed.
When I showed up in court, the young man was contrite. He was a polite and well-groomed man, a semipro athlete who used marijuana instead of anti-inflammatories for his muscle pain. Ibuprofen bothered his stomach. Even though he had done everything right, he was arrested for growing six plants.
I’m an unlikely advocate for marijuana legalization—a graduate from a top medical school with a Stanford M.B.A. I never personally liked marijuana and for much of my career judged it harshly. But my internal-medicine practice had become totally unworkable as a mother with two young kids with severe learning disabilities. Writing pot prescriptions was a job that fit neatly into my life.
By Daniela Drake
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