Comments
Please wait...
Comments are closed.
Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.
is a proud member of the
media network
media network
All contents © Index Newspapers LLC
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
This does underscore the continued awkwardness surrounding marijuana in this state. I still catch myself speaking a little quieter in public about marijuana use and I still fins myself surprised when older folks talk only about toking. I wonder how legalization is going to affect marijuana as a signifier (counter culture, youth, hippy, petty criminality). What is marijuana going to mean ten years from now?
but 3 grams? why walk around with a month's supply (which for me is more like 6 months)?
We need to do something as a society about the Catholic monopoly on medical care in many areas. It's a menace to have religious zealots in charge of the only otherwise high-quality medical care.
As for #2, I grew up during a big chunk of childhood in the Gig Harbor area and it is undeniably conservative and small-town in its thinking.
I disagree. What substances (controlled or uncontrolled) a patient consumes is a part of his/her medical record and should not be something a medical practitioner reports to the authorities. Period.
What is this asshole nurse going to do when a legitimate addict walks through the door and asks for help getting clean? Would you be okay with her turning that patient in rather than helping him or her? I would not be.
Now I say this next bit not as a matter of ethics, morality, or victim blaming—but one of manners: Learn to wrap your weed, please. Everyone.
The laws got stricter, as I moved into the corporate universe my friends got less cool, and I decided it was affecting my clarity (YMMV), so I stopped smoking.
Note to anti-pot alarmists: no, it is definitely not addictive. It's fun, it's relaxing, it has minor residual effects which fade over time, it may not be great for young still-developing brains, but it's not addictive.
But thanks for making shit up to support the poor Catholics. God knows they need the help.
If there was a concern about impairment, there were several other ways of handling this directly and professionally.
The nurse should be reprimanded or fired and the hospital is open to legal action. And I wouldn't be disappointed if that happened just to send a message.
Enjoy the high horse, but odds are this is going to lose her job and likely lead to the hospital settling a civil suit. And rightfully so. It is not medical practitioners' place to call police on patients whose lifestyle they don't approve of. As the police established, the guy was not impaired.
It's a very fine line medical professionals walk when it comes to drugs. On the one hand, you don't want to say something or draw attention to it, because it could effect the person feeling safe to come in for treatment, and on the other, you have a responsibility to protect others if the person is being dangerous about it. One thing we have to also consider is that while Mary Jane may be legal, it does not change the fact that it is indeed a drug. Legal or not, it does effect our bodies, and more importantly our minds. I hate how people try to make it seem harmless when it is absolutely not. There are some cases where it is a lesser evil or people being adult enough to make their own choices about how they treat their bodies.
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/faq…
@37 Because people always tell the truth when they have already given what could be seen as an antagonistic answer to earlier questions?
As for smelling of pot, these days good bud reeks, really reeks, a zip lock won't cut it. I carry mine in a small airtight ceramic container.
Therefore your argument would have one conclude, that you'd be ok with the nurse calling the cops on you after noticing you had a fifth of rum sticking out of your bag and asked if you drank.
What if instead of answering ""Yeah, Obviously", he answered "no it's a gift for a friend"? Still ok with her calling the cops?
And yes, if I smelled of rum, had an open fifth on me, and was being sarcastic to the nurse about it, I would rather except she would call the cops.
@45 Nurses can report. Not only can they, but many places treat nurses as front liners who are the first lines of defense. As long as it's done in good faith, and there is nothing here to show that she was doing it to be spiteful, and most courts will assume good faith unless there is proof or history of abuse, she is allowed to report him to the cops.
Healthcare is a dangerous field, and most workers are required to take training that assumes that at some point, someone will potentially assault the workers. Be it someone who is intoxicated, mentally unstable, angry, confused, or just a jerk. If anything, her reaction was rather cautious.
Again, if the nurse was *really* concerned that the guy was impaired - *which he obviously wasn't*, according to the cop - then leave it to the doctor. At the very last resort, ask the patient to stay until they're sure he's not intoxicated. But it is NOT the nurse's power-tripping job to play police investigator, prosecutor, and judge.
And what's with the "the doctor does not approve" crap? I don't approve of her moronic Dr. Laura complex. God, I hope they can her.
Jesus. How many times? Read the friggin' post. You conservatives are so eager to mount your hypocritical high horse (Typical. No wonder nobody likes you.) that you'll totally miss major details in a story that don't support your moralistic jihad.
Conservatives => Make stuff up.
In real life, medical professionals deal with people of all stripes and situations, and if they acted like anyone who uses drugs is a potential threat to their lives, nothing would ever get done in a hospital. Any typical nurse who's been around the block is not going to call the police out of fear just because some guy smelled like pot and said something that could be construed as sarcastic (but was also true). If they feel that they are at risk, there are policies about what to do about this - call hospital security might be a first step, I imagine. If she felt physically threatened or intimidated, the officer should have been informed of this.
Anyway, blah blah blah, the courts will hopefully work this out.
The question "Have you used marijuana?" and "Have you used marijuana today?" are fundamentally different questions. If someone asked me if I've "used marijuana" I would say yes, but it has been 6 years since my last use. The patient was only confirming that he used pot, because it was in his pocket, not that he was currently high.
Seriously, the Catholic Church and it's various minion organizations only understand one thing.. MONEY. MAKE THEM PAY. And nothing less than 9 figures
The hospital says the nurse practitioner called the police because the patient was planning to drive home and she thought, based on her experience, the patient might be impaired. That's mandatory reporting, not a breach of privacy. This is a non-story of a person who was questioned and went on his merry way.
To all the people who think medical folks call the cops every time they smell weed, please - get over yourselves. There isn't time in the day.
Cienna, i'm wondering what you might suggest that we can do to voice our STRONG disapproval for the Catholic Church (virtual) takeover of many of our hospitals (and bravo to you for so ably reporting this a few weeks ago!) ...a petition drive to reverse hospital board decisions? ...direct calls to hospital administrators?
Personally, i am appalled that we have essentially reverted to medieval management & religious hocus-pocus-dominocus in many of our hospitals. Young women being quoted Bible verses & being lectured to rather than getting real treatment & answers, and now someone being reported by a Nun - er, Catholic-affiliated Nurse - is absolutely shocking in our otherwise advanced Northwest society. Thank you for exposing this Catholic Church takeover, and here's hoping that at least some of these affiliation decisions can be reversed. Religion & its dogma & superstitions & fairy tales & sanctimony has no place in our hospitals!
It says she was a nurse practitioner not a registered nurse, a really big difference. A nurse practitioner actually has prescriptive powers and is a lot more like a doctor. To me this makes this a much worse violation of privacy. She really should have the training to know better. This woman was way off base.
Sorta ruins the article for me by throwing in that useless Catholic bit though. I say that as a devout agnostic who is very pro-life and hated my workplace being bought out by a Catholic institution recently.
He was not intoxicated. Even if he was, there are better ways to handle it. Just smelling of weed is not evidence of recent usage (and *any* medical professional should know what someone high looks like).
This is absolutely a HIPAA violation. There was no direct, imminent threat to the community.
Catholic hospitals are the ones that seem most willing to forgo ethics and law in order to impose their ugly prejudices. In the Pacific Northwest, where Catholics are taking over hospitals in rural areas, this is a major problem. Who cares if they have good intentions if their health care is based on biases and denying treatments? The truth is, they are compromising health care so they can force medically unsubstantiated superstitions on how women make choices about their own bodies, how the terminally ill control their own death, and what law-abiding citizens do for fun.
Ripped up my shoulder in 2009 my car keys were given to my coworker
Fell down Beacon Hill in 2008, 3rd degree sprain of one of my knees. Was not released until friends arrived to take me home.
Yes I am a klutz, and yes, hospitals will give you a prescription without checking how you are getting home, but they will not dose you without knowing you can get home safely.
What world do you live in where 3 grams is more than for personal use? I think you might be confused on units of measure. Three grams is less than 1/8 ounce of pot - it is pretty much the SMALLEST unit of measure when it comes to pot (although dispensaries now sell it by the gram, but even still most patients would buy multiple grams as a single gram is about a joint worth, three is not a large number for a single person whatsoever).
Under Washington medical marijuana laws, patients are allowed to have OUNCES of marijuana (each ounce being 28 grams or so). In some states, such as Oregon, up to an ounce is decriminalized and is a ticket only because it is actually DEEMED personal use. In Washington, up to an OUNCE of marijuana was made legal for ALL adults - that is 28 grams, far more than the three you think he should be arrested for....
For this story, though, it's irrelevant.
All I meant was that this story is unrelated and that the other article was drawing false conclusions for hype.
I feel like more people used to know the difference. Hooray, society.