Dr. Lynn Ponton, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco, offers a medical perspective in this excerpt from a guest column published by the San Francisco Chronicle.
“It’s my medicine, Doc,” said 18-year-old Jonathan, when I asked him why he was smoking marijuana every day. Surprised that any physician would prescribe marijuana for the anxious, depressed and disorganized adolescent sitting in my psychiatric office, I asked him where he had obtained the prescription. “A doc just like you. I heard about her from a friend. Anyone over 18 can get one. All I had to do was show my driver’s license and answer a bunch of questions. It’s good for a year, Doc, longer than any of your prescriptions.”
Confused and surprised, I questioned Jonathan about his treatment with the other doc. He filled me in on his 20-minute visit with her during the next hour and showed me a physician’s statement that read that Jonathon “has been diagnosed with a serious medical condition and that the medical use of marijuana is appropriate for that serious medical condition.” No mention in the document of what the serious condition was or how the medicine was to be prescribed.
Jonathan told me that he had gone to a dispensary and purchased the marijuana. I sat there thinking about the thousands of prescriptions I had written for young people during my 30 years of practice, for each laboring over dosage and carefully considering the impact of side effects on their young bodies. Twenty minutes …
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… I have continued to work with Jonathan. His parents, teachers and I have spent months trying to help him understand that marijuana is not the medicine for him.
Scientific studies support our work. Depression and marijuana are a dangerous mix for teenagers. Extreme lack of motivation and subsequent school and work failure are a common consequence of marijuana use. Marijuana is also physically addictive and exerts known negative effects on young people like Jonathan.
California and Colorado are both considering further legalization and taxation of marijuana. It’s important to recognize that Jonathan is not alone in my practice. Fortunately for him, his parents, his teacher and I are fighting hard to help him. However, it’s hard to counter that other “doc” who gave him 12 months of unsupervised marijuana and the idea that it was his medicine.
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