States with medical marijuana programs are increasingly clamping down on doctors accused of writing medical marijuana recommendations for people who don’t need them.
The implications are significant for medical marijuana businesses, since physicians write recommendations for their patients, and such violations could invite greater regulatory scrutiny on the industry.
The latest state to take action is Colorado, where regulators suspended the licenses of four doctors for recommending medical marijuana and “authorizing high plant counts for patients without medical necessity,” according to the Denver Business Journal.
It’s the first time since Colorado passed medical marijuana 16 years ago that state regulators suspended multiple doctors at once for writing recommendations without medical necessity, the publication reported.
In May, Massachusetts took medical licenses away from two doctors who between them are accused of improperly certifying thousands of people for medical marijuana use.
In January, a state lawmaker in Arizona tried to pass legislation that would have prohibited naturopaths and homeopaths from recommending medical marijuana. The lawmaker contended the two healthcare provider groups improperly recommended medical marijuana to patients, turning certification into a money-making racket.
