Cannabis Patient Registry

The Cannabis Patient Registry (CPR) is a MAPS project being directed by Sylvia Thyssen, MAPS' Networks Coordinator. The aim of the CPR is the creation of a data base listing as many of the patients who use marijuana for medical purposes as we can reach.

In 1996, MAPS will work diligently to build upon the careful collaborative work that has gone into designing the CPR questionnaire. We plan to finalize the questionnaire in the first few months of 1996 so that we can begin the more active outreach phase of this project in the Spring. The questionnaire itself will be included as part of the next MAPS Bulletin. The CPR is designed to put a human face, indeed hundreds and eventually thousands of human faces, on the medical marijuana issue. The CPR will be useful to help organize the medical marijuana community so it can act more effectively to obtain the right for patients to use the most appropriate medications that their physicians think they need. The CPR will also be useful for epidemiological and scientific purposes.

The CPR is structured to gather enough information about each patient's condition to permit the determination of whether it was likely that the patient would be able to assert a medical necessity defense in a court of law should such a sad eventuality arise. The CPR would act as a diagnostic to help patients come to understand what criteria for medical necessity, if any, they were missing and what was required to come into compliance. The CPR is also designed to be a resource for patients in their efforts to communicate with their physicians. The CPR offers patients information packages that can be given to their physicians so that dialogue between patient and care givers can be more open despite the hostility of the criminal justice system to the medical needs of some patients.

In 1996, we also plan to put part of the CPR up on the Internet on the MAPS World Wide Web page. As a rule, all communication with the CPR is kept confidential. However, we would like to help the wider public realize that medical marijuana patients are seriously ill people who deserve compassion. We plan to ask those patients who are comfortable with the idea to write a brief personal account of their medical use of marijuana for posting on the MAPS web page, perhaps even with their photograph for those willing to be so public. The accounts, which may be anonymous, will be categorized by clinical conditions so that people can easily find the personal stories they'd like to read.