Health and Wellness News
Philadelphia ‘marijuana doctor’ suspended for ‘problematic pattern of cannabis use’
Apr
Pennsylvania has revoked the license of a Philadelphia doctor known for easily issuing physician’s certificates required to participate in the state’s medical marijuana program.
The physician, Matthew Roman, was “unable to practice the profession with reasonable skill and safety to patients by reason of illness or addiction to drugs,” according to state documents.
Roman, who operates Nature’s Way Medicine in Old City, was one of the first doctors to issue recommendations, similar to a prescription, for medical cannabis in the Keystone State. Since the launch of the medical marijuana program, Roman’s practice has been limited to accepting $200 payments from a stream of patients seeking to access legal weed.
Nature’s Way website describes Roman as “America’s Medical Marijuana Doctor.”
Roman has an active presence on YouTube, where he has often live-streamed long agitated rants about his relationships with women, his thoughts about the medical profession, and his love of marijuana while smoking a joint.
Somebody must have been watching. According to state documents, a state-appointed psychiatrist found Roman has “displayed a problematic pattern of cannabis use leading to clinically significant impairment.”
Roman did not reply to requests for comment, other than to email an Inquirer reporter that he would live stream a statement at 8 p.m. tonight on his YouTube channel. His attorney, Michael J. McCarrie of Media, could not be reached.
In November, Roman filed a suit against the Trump Administration claiming the federal government was preventing him from exercising his Second Amendment right to own a handgun. In his complaint, Roman said the law prevented him from buying a Smith & Wesson 638 revolver from a federally licensed dealer for self-defense. The gun dealer, Firing Line of South Philadelphia, refused to sell him a weapon because a 1968 law forbids anyone who uses marijuana from owning or using a firearm.
His attempt to buy the snub-nosed revolver came two weeks after the state’s psychiatric evaluation.
Under the consent decree filed on April 16 with the Department of State, Roman will remain on probation. The terms of his suspension place him under three years of probation. The order also forbids him from using any controlled substances, mood altering drugs and alcohol in any form.
The Department of Health emailed Roman’s patients early Wednesday morning notifying them that though Roman had been removed from the program they would still be allowed to purchase product from state-permitted dispensaries.
The missive advised patients to find another practitioner to issue their next certification before their current medical marijuana card expires.
Read more from the source: Inquirer.com