This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on July 31, 2015.
A long time ago a police officer told me that some of the best drug tips come from rival drug dealers. Makes sense, right? Want your competition out of the picture, report them.
Has the grey area of medical cannabis and the dichotomy of federal versus state laws impacted the ethical behavior of some medical professionals?
When a company, or say a doctor, operates in the grey area of any somewhat legal business like medical marijuana would you expect them to act ethically? If the doctor is already kind-of breaking the law should ethics just fly out of the window?
Emails shared with the MPO tell the tale of a metro Detroit doctor, Kumar Singh, whose practice the Greenlite Clinic that specializes in medical marijuana certification, had asked his marketing company to toss ethics aside in order to gain more patient clients.
“Could you report my competition to Google and get them kicked off of Adwords”, asks the doctor.
Google has a don’t ask-don’t tell policy when it comes to advertising medical marijuana services. Basically, the unofficial policy states, ‘we are not going to ask unless someone else tells us what you are doing.’ Kicking your competition of the Adwords network can be a great boon for any business, but is the practice ethical?
If ratting out your business competition for their advertising practices does not cross the ethics border, then asking others to contact state medical licensing boards against your competition just to clear the field is definitely wrong.
Dr Singh took his eradication of competition even further when he suggested that The Higher Learning Clinic, a Metro Detroit medical practice that issues medical cards (the same business as Dr. Singh) was in violation of medical ethics by advertising a pot smoking doctor within their advertising.
Emails show that the marketing firm would not rat out the doctors competition to Google. And that on a different occasion the agency flat out refused to contact the Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS) for questionable advertising. In September of 2014, Dr Singh asked, “Can you, or an attorney friend file a complaint on their ( Dr. Larry Shapiro) practices with the State or something?”
Do I think this doctors actions are typical of those engaged in the practice of medicine? “No”
Does the dichotomy of state and federal laws help to create this type of situation? “Absolutely”
We need to level the playing field by allowing doctors to best help their patients, and that begins with the legalization of medical cannabis at the federal level.
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What a scumbag doc. Guess I will be getting my renewal somewhere else this year. He did seem kind of creepy when I was in the room alone with him. Now I know why.. SMH
this doctor is trying to ruin it for others that are sick and only cares about his pocketbook. Modern medicine