Georgia Pharmacist ‘Very Disappointed’ With DEA Warning Letter On Dispensing Medical Marijuana, Saying It’s An Opioid Alternative – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

Little Five Points Pharmacy, in Atlanta, is one of nearly 120 independent pharmacies in Georgia that recently applied to dispense medical marijuana under a new state program. Then last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sent Little Five Points and other pharmacies across the state a warning that the activity is unlawful because THC remains a Schedule I controlled substance.

“I’m very, very, very disappointed with it,” pharmacist Ira Katz, at Little Five Points Pharmacy, told Atlanta First News. “We always felt, as pharmacists, that this is a drug and it should be kept in pharmacy. It should be regulated by pharmacy. So we are very disappointed that the DEA is choosing to keep it out of pharmacy, where it belongs.”

Katz, in further comments to 11 Alive, said the issue is important “because who better than your independent pharmacy, who knows your history and knows your medical history, is able to best dispense medical marijuana?”

“For chronic pain, we believe that if we can get patients off these high doses of opioids, the hydrocodone, the oxycodone, the combinations of these things, then through the use of medical cannabis, we believe we can help contribute to slowing down this opiate crisis,” the pharmacist said.

Todd Heydel, of Peachtree NORML, called DEA’s letters “ridiculous” and “extremely frustrating in comments to Atlanta First.

“We have children that are sick, that…