State Policies, Laws, Or Regulations That Can Protect Vulnerable Populations

State Policies, Laws, or Regulations that could Indirectly Protect Vulnerable Population While there are no specific policies or regulations in the state medical marijuana laws that address the recommendation and distribution of medical marijuana to vulnerable populations, several of the professionals and experts interviewed discussed the aspects of the individual state laws that could indirectly protect vulnerable populations; most prominent being the doctor-patient relationship. Other policies, that several of the interviewees felt that might indirectly protect vulnerable populations, include the practitioner education and certification, and stipulations that in New York and Minnesota, there must be a pharmacist present in the dispensaries.
Doctor-patient Relationship In all three of the individual states under discussion, the practitioner is required to have a bona fide relationship with the patient to recommend marijuana treatment. Eleven of the fourteen of the professionals and experts interviewed made mention of the importance of doctor-patient relationship as a means of protecting vulnerable populations. It hinges on the patient 's honesty in self-reporting an accurate medical history, including mental illnesses or other mental health conditions, and the ethics of the practitioners and the pharmacists that are working the medical marijuana programs. As stated, the best protection is that there is a genuine relationship between the patient and the physician; it is