Medical marijuana patients are routinely discriminated against in medical settings. Even in medical marijuana states, patients are denied transplants [14] because they are considered "drug abusers." All across the country, medical marijuana patients face problems in obtaining traditional pain treatment, especially because of "pain contracts [15]" used by doctors who either don't understand or believe in medical marijuana or who fear the heavy hand of federal law enforcement, or both. Now, in West Virginia, one patient is fighting back.
Putnam County resident Ronald Sprouse filed a lawsuit September 3 [16] against a doctor and health center, claiming they refused to prescribe him pain medications and dismissed him as a patient after he tested positive for marijuana on June 13. Sprouse is suing the Family Care Health Center, officer manager Janice Amburgey, and Dr. Larry Beker for refusing to treat him because he uses marijuana medicinally.
In his complaint, Sprouse admitted he smokes marijuana and said he does so to relieve the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. "In addition, the Plaintiff asserts that many medications have been used in the past to attempt to treat his disorder without success," the complaint said. "Only the use of marijuana has proven effective to control the Plaintiff's disorder." Without marijuana, Sprouse wrote, he becomes violent toward his family and is reluctant to leave his home for fear of how he will react to others. "Unless properly medicated the Plaintiff cannot sleep, has night sweats, and bouts of deep depression," the suit said
Sprouse admitted signing a pain contract, or pain management agreement that says: "Unannounced urine or serum toxicology screens may be requested, and your cooperation is required. Presence of unauthorized substances (legal or illegal) will result in discharge from the practice."
But Sprouse argued that the clause is invalid, first because Family Care did not provide him with a list of what it considered unauthorized substances. "Without such a list the Plaintiff had no way of knowing what Family Care considered to be legal or illegal unauthorized substances," the suit said.
He may have better luck with his second argument against the pain contract. He signed the contract under coercion, he argued, because he had to to obtain treatment. "In this case the Plaintiff was forced to sign the Pain Management Agreement or live a life in constant pain with no medication," his complaint said.
Sprouse also argued that he violated the agreement out of medical necessity, not malfeasance. "Family Care was not authorized to prescribe the medication needed to alleviate his serious medical condition, not is any medical professional in the state of West Virginia," the complaint states. "In order to preserve his health, mental stability, and the safety of his family and others, the Plaintiff was forced to medicate himself."
As a remedy, Sprouse is seeking a judgment against the center that would order it to continue treating him and bar it from placing any negative comments in his medical file that would inhibit other doctors or practices from prescribing him medication. He is also seeking court costs.
Sprouse has requested a jury trial. He is representing himself.