Close your eyes and imagine you’re one of our surveyors, you’re doing an inspection of a nursing home or assisted living center and you find residents smoking marijuana. Could that really happen? Maybe. One of the provisions of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act talks about the ways nursing homes and assisted living centers (that we license) can manage marijuana use among residents (if the Initiative passes). Page 16 of the Initiative (would be ARS 36-2805) says that nursing homes and assisted living centers can adopt reasonable restrictions on their resident’s marijuana use. For example, our licensed facilities can decline to provide or store the marijuana for residents and they can ask the residents to consume the marijuana in a specified place in the facility. Facilities could prohibit Cannabis smoking as long as they allow residents to consume it in another way (like in brownies). Nursing homes wouldn’t be able to make “unreasonable” restrictions on marijuana use by residents unless the limitations are required in order to avoid being fined or losing their license (under federal law e.g. CMS).
Marijuana (Cannabis) in AZ’s Nursing Homes?
About the Author: Will Humble
Will Humble, M.P.H.
Director
Arizona Department of Health Services
7 Comments
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Hmmmm, very interesting. I’d never considered that before!
Medical marihauna is certainly quite a effective remedy for plenty of people, it doesn’t matter what some folks think. I know friends that have been helped with medical marijuana.
So whats the problem? It seems to me the concept of marijuana use as a medicine has been damaged over the years by governments and abusers of marijuana. Will Humble should really take a step back from these conventional views shaped by heavily bias opinion and analyze the item at hand. Unless their is sufficient evidence and knowledge about the pros and cons of medical marijuana I don’t think an opinion should be made.
Medical grade Marijuana can provide therapeutic benefits to patients, including the elderly. We need to start treating it as a medicine and stop looking at it like it’s alcohol!
Don’t you think that in order to be treated like medicine, the Cannabis should go through the same peer reviewed processes as all other medications and establish that it meets safety and efficacy standards in order to protect the patients?
Will-You make your opinion entirely clear in every biased blog you post. We get it….Unfortunately for you, the people have spoken and by the majority they disagree with you.
Thank you for your information…