My MMJ friendly doc is .....

I had an appointment for today w/ a doc. in southern Maine to get my MMJ cert taken care of.
I got a call yesterday from the doctor letting me know "you might want to cancel your appointment, Im no longer signing off on chronic pain."

Seems that after the convention last week the doctors willing to sign off have been flooded w/ patient referrals. Now both doctors in my part off the state that were willing to sign off on certs are no longer willing to do so.

What was hard just got harder......

If anyone knows of a doctor in southern Maine can you please PM me, it seems like the small list of doctors willing to sign off is getting smaller by the day.

she is great, very friendly and understanding.
http://www.drshawnhiggins.com/

I would also recommend Dr. Higgins.

Sounds like she might be the only one...hopefully she isn't the one ink is talking about.

tet1953 said:

.hopefully she isn't the one ink is talking about.

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Sorry to say that she is the one I was speaking of. I'll say this, she is a nice person She could have just seen me, not signed and taken my money but she didnt. We spoke on the phone for a while and she referred me to Sulak, but he has a super long wait and is kind of far for me.

She said she was "overwhelmed" at the amount of patient referrals she got in the last week or so...

Hey ink did you get a PM from me? I sent one when you first posted this, but it isn't in my Sent box. I sent it by clicking your name in the post, not from My Profile, so I'm not sure.

Did Dr. Higgins discuss why she is no longer signing for chronic pain? My rec is for my knee pain, so this kind of gets my attention.

The last thing i heard about Sulak (and this is definitely hearsay) was that he has reached some kind of patient cap and was no longer accepting any new patients.

This is really a bad situation. While I am sure there must be others, Drs. Higgins and Sulak are the only two I have really heard of who have actually given certs. Like I said, my own doc would be glad to, but he isn't allowed to by his assn. Hopefully by the time I have to recertify he will be able to.

If doctors are not feeling more comfortable about it soon, then it represents a large flaw in the law, in my opiniion. Requiring a doc recommendation, but then having the vast majority of doctors withholding such recommendation for non-medical reasons is bullshit.

Dr's don't get kick backs and trips and gifts from marijuana....

Maine Brookies said:

Did Dr. Higgins discuss why she is no longer signing for chronic pain? My rec is for my knee pain, so this kind of gets my attention.

The last thing i heard about Sulak (and this is definitely hearsay) was that he has reached some kind of patient cap and was no longer accepting any new patients.

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When I talked w/ Dr. Higgins she was very nice and it sounded like she actually felt bad. From what I can tell she got flooded w/ referrals after the convention. I also have seen her name on more than a couple MMJ websites. Id be willing to bet she got freaked out by the huge demand created because of the lack of willing doctors. Think about it, there was only a small handful of willing doctors, now that their names are starting to really get around they are getting overwhelmed.

I sent Dr. Sulak an email today letting him know Dr. Higgins referred me to him.....I'll see if he is still accepting patients and let you guys know.

tet1953 said:

This is really a bad situation. While I am sure there must be others, Drs. Higgins and Sulak are the only two I have really heard of who have actually given certs. Like I said, my own doc would be glad to, but he isn't allowed to by his assn. Hopefully by the time I have to recertify he will be able to.

If doctors are not feeling more comfortable about it soon, then it represents a large flaw in the law, in my opiniion. Requiring a doc recommendation, but then having the vast majority of doctors withholding such recommendation for non-medical reasons is bullshit.

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Yeah, its is kind of frustrating, maybe it highlights the need for MMJ specific clinics or something like what California has.

sulak isn't taking new patients till april with no openings till june......

ink the world said:

Id be willing to bet she got freaked out by the huge demand created because of the lack of willing doctors.

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When i saw her she told me to tell my friends about her as she was trying to build her business. That doesn't really jibe with the freaked out theory. She may be overwhelmed but that's no reason ask you to cancel because she's going to refuse to sign for chronic pain. Seems odd, but i see her again in a month so i'll report back about what happens then.

Doctors need to make some time to see these folks it's their office has to catch calls and something like on Monday's or monday afternoon but you could get an appointment and get on with it in a sense!

Sulak and Higgins are the only ones I know of personally who are doing certs. Surely there are others, but damn few. So, it makes sense that Higgins was inundated after the expo. And, being one of so few who are doing them, she has and will have tons of applications with her name. Now, at some point the state is going to try and draw in the reins a little, the public will demand it. So, the applications that will get attention will be the subective "chronic pain" ones. Makes sense that she would want to cut down on those, especially if she has more requests than she can handle to begin with.

I just emailed Sulak's practice... I've been DX with PTSD, insomnia, GERD, and a host of other things. I'll let ya'll know

Sulaks office, opens the enrollment for new applicants for one month then closes it for 2 months then again opens....ect....

Or that's how they have been doing it.

...ok,so does anyone know anybody else who I can refer potential patients to? I know at least 3 people that want to become my patients (and I'm no doctor but preety sure theyr conditions are covered by the law) and I have no place to send them for prescription .please help...

I'm not sure how accurate this list is but it's worth a try. http://www.mainevocals.net/2010 Old Web Pages/2010 doctors list jl.htm

Well thanx MYWhat?, however its hard to refer someone to someone you have never met , you know what I mean? guess the only thing I can do is pass the list along to my potential patients, and let them figure it out...thanx.

Update:


I just read on another forum and had a registered patient in my town confirm that Dr. Higgins received death threats and that is the reason for her stopping MMJ recommendations. I feel horrible for the poor woman, one of the few in the state that would write a recommendation scared off by a nutjob.