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  Doctors Urge Caution in Prescribing Medical Marijuana to Kids
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ContributorJason 
Last EditedJason  Feb 03, 2010 01:23am
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AuthorSusan Sharon
News DateTuesday, February 2, 2010 07:00:00 AM UTC0:0
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The Maine Association of Psychiatric Physicians is calling for a change in the state's medical marijuana law aimed at providing more protections for minors. The law currently allows patients under the age of 18 access to medical marijuana with a doctor's authorization for certain conditions. But Maine psychiatrists believe that kind of access poses longtime risks for some kids to develop psychosis and addiction.

"Better late than never." That's how Dr. Jim Maier of Scarborough describes the timing of his group's position nearly three months after voters expanded the state's ten-year-old medical marijuana law. Maier is a psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of children who are vulnerable to psychotic illness.

"We have seen kids whose psychosis was accelerated by marijuana, and we've seen even kids that we've treated who got psychotic again when they experimented with marijuana use. So it's not a harmless drug and we really want to get the word out as much as possible that risks and benefits need to be carefully measured."
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