Some doctors hesitant to embrace Pa.’s new medical marijuana system

(Harrisburg) — Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program is being set up in phases, but there’s weariness among some doctors.

The draft regulations will require doctors who want to prescribe medical marijuana to take a training course, register with the Department of Health, and ban them from advertising that they can prescribe the drug.

But even before the standards were made public, doctors were showing signs of concern.

Dr. James Joseph is a member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians, which represents more than 5,000 doctors in the state.

He says he’s not ready to prescribe medical marijuana, and others in the cautious medical community are holding off too.

“There are a lot of devils in the details that I think physicians who are not familiar with this, very appropriately so, will need to become educated before they begin changing their practice,” says Joseph. “We’re in a difficult dilemma here because we do not have much science in many conditions that medical marijuana is advocated for, but with its current scheduling, it’s difficult to have that science generated.”

Joseph says with training, he may be more open to prescribing medical marijuana.

The state says its regulatory system will be fully setup next year.

The state’s largest group of physicians – the Pennsylvania Medical Society – has also been skeptical of the commonwealth’s medical marijuana plans.