Posts Tagged ‘Canada’

A Toke In Time

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Six years ago Robin Hove was working as a security guard. The Saskatchewan resident became entangled with a shoplifter. In the course of the struggle, an open cut in the shoplifter’s mouth bled onto Hove: “The blood came pouring out of his mouth, into my eyes and into my mouth and I was just drowning in it.” Ugh.
Hove, suffering from post-traumatic stress, has not worked since the incident. For five years, his doctor prescribed conventional anxiety medications. None worked. Then his doctor prescribed medical marijuana. Bingo. Hove began to enjoy life again. While still incapable of working, he was able to get out of the house and function somewhat normally. A few tokes and he was as good as new.
Unfortunately for Hove, the Saskatchewan Workers Compensation Board does not recognize medical marijuana as a legitimate medication; marijuana is not listed in the catalogue of approved pharmaceuticals. Hove has to pay for the pot himself. It’s running a whopping $600 per month (and they used to refer to “nickel bags”!).
Hove is appealing the board’s denial of his request that his marijuana expenses be reimbursed. My advice to Hove: don’t hold your breath. The board is unlikely to budge.
Like, Heroic
Hove found himself in the news recently. He was enjoying a coffee at a local restaurant when a robber armed with a machete tried to rob a nearby gas station. Hove reacted instinctively and heroically, helping to subdue the man. He received a commendation from the mayor for his selfless actions.
Hove’s heroism does raise a couple of questions: what is the relationship between his post-traumatic stress and his ability to intervene in a dangerous situation? Was he “stoned” (sorry about that) or unmedicated when he took action? And finally, if he is capable of heroic acts, why can’t he go back to work?
If Hove’s ability to act is directly related to his consumption of pot, he is probably not employable. No employer would or could tolerate an employee constantly functioning under the influence of marijuana. Thus in all likelihood, Hove will continue his spacy path as an individual with a disability. He will find comfort in his drug of choice, but it will take a third of his limited disability income to pay for the medication. There’s a lot of anxiety in the situation, but relief is just a toke away.

Boston pilot to import prescription drugs from Canada

Monday, August 2nd, 2004

In the continuing saga of the high cost of prescription drugs, a report in Business Insurance last week announced that Boston launched a drug reimportation program. It’s a pilot program so far, but in taking this step, Boston becomes the largest municipality to defy federal law against drug imports. The pilot is currently restricted to Boston employees and retirees. Mayor Menino estimates that it will save more than $1 million in the first year.
The issue of drug imports isn’t just a controversial one here – some in Canada are expressing concern over the Boston deal too, fearing that it may lead to Canadian prescription drug shortages.
For more information, see past posts:
More on the prescription drug saga
Ouch! Pain drugs or drug pains

More on the prescription drug saga

Tuesday, January 6th, 2004

The story continues to unfold as the FDA says “nix” to states and cities seeking to import prescription drugs from Canada to get relief from onerous pricing here in the U.S. No states are actually importing drugs yet, but many say they will fight the FDA ruling. The cities of Springfield, MA and Montgomery, AL are both currently running programs to purchase drugs, and saving quite a bit of money by doing so.
The ruling was a response to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s request for a waiver to allow the state to purchase drugs from Canada for state workers and retirees. He estimates that the state could realize a savings on the order of $91 million a year.

The FDA frames this as a consumer safety issue saying that “imported drugs could be tainted, old or fake,” but to many these protestations seem disingenuous. The pharmaceutical industry no doubt fears that this could open the door to drug pricing controls here in the U.S., and it would seem likely that the administration is going to want to keep the deep pockets in this industry happy pre-election.

See our prior discussion of this issue and a study pointing to the alarmingly high prescription drug costs in workers’ comp.