Medical cannabis program wrapped in secrecy
ATLANTA (VDT) – Hundreds of physicians have signed up for Georgia’s one-year-old medical cannabis program.
Good luck finding any of them.
The name and location of doctors authorized to sign off on a patient’s eligibility to use cannabis oil are kept confidential.
Lawmakers gave physicians that privacy amid concerns that people seeking cannabis treatments would shop around for doctors, said Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, who sponsored the law starting the program.
Without access to a list of doctors, parents and patients have mostly relied on each other to find someone who can enroll them.
Secrecy surrounding Georgia’s nascent medical cannabis program is just one hurdle that exists for patients and their families trying to take advantage of it.
“At least once a week, we get a parent or patient asking us, ‘Hey, I can’t get a doctor,’” said Sebastien Cotte, an advocate for medical cannabis and a parent of a child on the state registry.
So, by word of mouth, names of doctors known to be on the registry are passed around patient circles.
A handful of names have also surfaced on websites of medical cannabis advocates.
That’s how six patients found Dr. Robert Whipple, a pediatrician in Newnan, just south of Atlanta. One came as far as Augusta – some three hours away.
All are epileptic and see pediatric neurologists who declined to certify the young patients for the registry, Whipple said.
Whipple is one of 274 physicians who had joined the registry as of the end of May. That means less than 2 percent of physicians who provide patient care in Georgia have signed up.
