Of PCPs and THC

By ROB LAMBERTS, MD The drug test came back abnormal.  There was THC present.  I walked back to Mrs. Johnson and raised my eyebrows. “What’s wrong?” she asked, not used to whatever kind of look I was giving her. “Uh, you forgot to mention to me that you smoke weed.” She blushed and then smirked.  “Well, yes, I guess I forgot to put that down on the sheet.  I don’t do it real often, but sometimes it takes mind off of things.  I just get real anxious about my kids, my husband…and my heart problems. I only smoke one or two a night” She’s not your usual picture of a pot-head.  She’s in her sixties, has coronary heart disease, irritable bowel, hypertension, is on Medicaid, and is the essential caricature of the the poor white folk who live in the deep south.  And she smokes weed. I was doing drug testing on her as part of my office policy.  Mrs. Johnson gets 30 Percocet per month, and so clearly poses a high risk of drug trafficking, escalation to PCP, crystal meth, and LSD, and ending up behind bars for the rest of her life.  That’s why I had to test her.  And now I caught her in a lie, trying to cover-up her use of illegal drugs. My old practice had a policy of discharging such people immediately from the practice.  Some of our physicians had the belief that any departure from the rules should be dealt with swiftly and harshly.  It’s part of the reason I couldn’t stay in the prac...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: THCB Source Type: blogs