Largest health-care provider in Utah greenlights medical cannabis recommendations

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Utah’s biggest health-care provider – Intermountain Healthcare – told its physicians they’re allowed to write medical marijuana recommendations for patients, which could boost the number of potential customers for the state’s upcoming MMJ industry.

According to The Salt Lake Tribune, the organization’s chief physician executive sent a memo to its network of roughly 1,500 doctors, rescinding a previous policy that discouraged them from writing MMJ recommendations.

Intermountain said it would share more information about the new policy on Thursday, the Tribune reported.

Originally, Intermountain showed hesitance toward giving its doctors any encouragement to write MMJ recommendations for patients, which led some activists to worry that the law signed by the governor in December would end up proving unworkable because of a lack of physician participation.

University of Utah Health has also indicated it is working on MMJ guidelines for its providers, the Tribune reported, and the president of the University Medical Group told the newspaper that its doctors are not forbidden from helping patients get access to medical cannabis.