It see end of April and we’ve had a lot of rain and cold weather in Seattle.  I have been able to help a few people in the last you months to get them authorized to utilize medical marijuana.  The state legislature is trying to clarify the law concerning the distribution of medical marijuana through “dispensary or co-ops” but this thread of a vetoed by the governor who has sent them back to the drawing board due to comments made by the federal attorneys in Washington state.  The dispensary/co-ops operate in a gray area of the law and in Seattle they want to clarify so that the police have some clear guidelines.  I’m in favor of having clear guidelines for the legality of distributing marijuana to needy patients like myself.

The last patient comment was about the details of his medical problems.  These should be private and only discuss in the privacy of a consultation.  I can certainly offer this patient a private consultation but cannot offer ongoing continue therapy, although there is many people that I could recommend to provide this type of care.

I only write something on this blog when I’m prompted by having a comment so that I know someone is reading it.  So send your comments and then I will make appropriate notes based on what is going on in the world of medical marijuana for Washington state

I am a board-certified medical doctor specializing in medical marijuana authorization in Washington State.

I was diagnosed with Progressive Multiple Sclerosis in 1995.

Why is my story interesting ,unique and why should you trust my point of view?

I am a retired Medical School Educator, a physician and surgeon with over 35 years of clinical experience.  I am a Multiple sclerosis patient and patient advocate who utilizes medicinal marijuana therapeutically and recommends medical marijuana to qualified patients in Washington state.

This blend of life experiences provides a unique perspective and creates my opinions that are both scientifically grounded and balanced with empathy and compassion for patients with debilitating or terminal diseases.

Medical marijuana should be legally available and decriminalized to all medically qualified patients.

Medical marijuana is a safe and an effective medicine.

Medical marijuana has a variety of benefits, some of which are reducing pain while reducing the dependence on dangerous narcotics with serious side effects.  Improving sleep, decreasing nausea while improving appetite, and improves the quality of life for a variety of diseases.

In 2010 my multiple sclerosis progressed so that I am no longer able to walk. This MS journey began when I was still competing in amateur athletics. 

In 2010 I began Northwest Healthy Options, a Medical Marijuana Authorization Clinic for Washington state residents. My clinic is a legal, professional, and  effective way to help others.

If you know someone in Washington State that I can help please give me the gift of referring them for help.  Our phone number is 206-707-8494 and website is www.NWhealthyoptions.com.  This is Dr. Michael Stern of Northwest Healthy Options wishing you great health and tolerance for those qualified patients utilizing medical marijuana therapeutically.

I have been in a Bellevue location since March 2009 and am planning to relocate the office in Seattle, probably near the University of Washington in the next couple weeks.  I hope that nothing changes in reference to the practice other than the office that I will be seeing patients and that we will still be able to provide the same high quality professional care to our patients.

A word about spam trash and comments.  I was receiving 5 to 15 comments a day prior to connecting  with my current system of clearing all the comments before sending them.  I now have one personal comment, which is appropriate and glad to be able to answer it.  For all those Washington state readers of my blog.  I would appreciate any appropriate comments or questions that I can answer.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA MYTHS

I’m going to try to dispel some of the myths that so many people have grown up with and just like me have been brainwashed to believe things that have no basis in fact or science.

Marijuana is a gateway drug. 
Marijuana is highly addictive.
Using marijuana forces you to use a higher dose all the time.
Marijuana causes you to be lazy and unproductive.
Marijuana causes serious medical problem.
Being authorized to use medical marijuana forces you to register with the state and every bit of your information is given to a state agency.
Marijuana does not have any medicinal effects.
Marijuana is associated with automobile accidents and automobile deaths.

Please send then all of your questions concerning medicinal marijuana and whether you think it’s a myth or not.  I appreciate all participation.  Once I got accumulated a list of what I consider myths I’m going to tell you my opinion about them.

Well as a new blog I got over 100 really positive wonderful comments on all that I wrote. Unfortunately,  it is most likely that they were all spam and trash and no one really commented on the blog who read it . Two days ago I inserted a filter that eliminates spam and have not had a comment on the blog since inserting that filter. It’s Sunday morning and the Seahawks are going to be playing the Chicago Bears my hometown team since childhood. I am a converted Seahawks fan and so I’m in a no lose situation. I can support both teams and hope that it’s a really sensational game without preferring a winner. Having grown up in Chicago on the north side and going to both the Chicago Cubs and Chicago Bear’ s game as an adolescent it’s embedded in my psyche to support Chicago teams. Other than the White Sox I’ve never been to a White Sox game or a supporter of the White Sox.

I’m going be opening a new office in Seattle doing strictly medical marijuana authorization and advertised it as such. I’m going to this morning and look at the office space.

I have a fly infestation in my house and don’t know the source. These are not typical small houseflies they look more like large horseflies. I’ve saved one in the container to use as a model so when searching on the Internet and try to figure out some information about them.

I appreciate all of the previous comments. Since my blog is relatively new I was very much struck by all the positive comments made to me in the past it was encouraging to my ego. I am going to remove all previous comments on any of my posts and only published comments where you address them directly to Dr. Stern with your city state and country of origin. No spam, Trash or anybody else’s comments would be made public.

Only comments address directly to Dr. Stern with your city state and country of origin may be published.. No spam, Trash or anybody else’s comments wIll be made public.Who are the people sending all these comments? I received a variety of comments from people daily but no one really says what they like about blog or what they learned specifically or ask any questions that are relevant to why am writing the blog. I’m beginning to think that all of the comments are just computer generated and that people are doing it to get their own agenda noticed. So if you’re really reading my blog and really getting something from it and desire to make a comment then follow the instructions which are to put your city or country of origin and then specifically comment on what you learned from my blog. If you’re willing to make a comment of how wonderful my writing is in the blog then tell me which areas really impresses you. Again no comment will be published with out your location. Obviously you can lie but I want to know where my audience is coming from.

Only comments addressed directly to Dr. Stern with your city state and country of origin may be published.. No spam, Trash or anybody else’s comments wIll be made public.Each comment should start with your city or country of origin. I very much enjoy the comments and it encourages me to write more but I also would like to know my audience and where they are located. It is easy to put your city or country of origin in your comments. If you do not put the city or your country I will not publish or approve your comments for others to read thank you

Only comments addressed directly to Dr. Stern with your city state and country of origin may be published.. No spam, Trash or anybody else’s comments wIll be made public.I must make a comment about the comments. I’m surprised at all the positive comments. There’s many superlatives used by participants but no specifics of what I have written that is really relevant. I also really want to encourage people to put their city or country of origin when making a comment. I will be seeing patients on Saturday and am pleased with the opportunity of helping and educating more patients.

In the 1980s I was flying in the United States and requested a vegetarian meal. To my surprise the standard meal for all travelers was barbecued chicken. The vegetarian meal was chicken without the barbecue sauce. Someone missed the class on what is a vegetarian in the food service delivery at this airline.

Also a funny event when using a video camera in the 1980s and filming a two-year-old playing on the beach. His grandmother, who was very unfamiliar with audio and visual  cameras was filming her grandson and his activities. When the video is reviewed it was hilarious. The audio was the grandmother saying “he looks so small why is he so small I can hardly see him why is he so small no matter what I do he is really small”. When the video was reviewed it became apparent why he was so small— the entire video was five minutes of her eye and it became apparent that she had the camera reversed and was looking through the lens backward while just filming her own eye., And that is why her grandson was so small.

Medical marijuana can be used effectively as a natural pain reducer and that’s that supplemental therapy used in conjunction with other medications.

In 1984 I joined the staff of a cross where I was amazed that they allowed patients to smoke in their hospital rooms. Research on the detrimental effects of smoking were done in the 1940s and 50s and ultimately the Surgeon General filed a white paper of 1700 articles which demonstrated the preponderance of evidence was that smoking was detrimental to your health. So the evidence was clear in the 1950s 60s and 70s that smoking cigarettes was detrimental to your health. A hospital is a institution that is trying to help patients improve their health. Why in the world 20 years after the Surgeon General has issued his report is a hospital still allowing patients to smoke and worse yet sell cigarettes to the patients. The policy was finally reversed and so patients are allowed to smoke outside the front door of the hospital. When using marijuana therapeutically I recommend vaporization or ingestion of therapeutic portion of marijuana which is the THC. Clearly the effects of smoking on lung tissue is irritating and.such irritation is usually associated with ill affects to a targeted organ such as their lung.

Have a great day and remember helping others in some way makes each day worth living

Only comments addressed directly to Dr. Stern with your city state and country of origin may be published.. No spam, Trash or anybody else’s comments wIll be made public.It would be very important to me to identify your city, state, and country if not in the United States when you make comments. I received several comments in languages that are not English such as French and a language that I’m not sure of. It is probably not useful to write your comments in a language other than English.