Using a Expert in a Medical Marijuana Necessity Defense Case in Florida

I recently had the privilege of talking with Dr. Stephen Blythe, D.O., a Board-Certified Family Physician about the Maine Medical Marijuana Program (MMMP). His experience with patients in a state where medical marijuana has been approved will help educate judges and juries throughout Florida.

For criminal defense attorneys in Florida interested in having Dr. Blythe review your case you can contact him at sblythe@tds.net. His fax number is 877-220-0488. His training and experience make him particularly suited to help criminal defense attorneys who have clients that possessed or cultivated marijuana because of a medical necessity.

In most cases, the medical necessity defense is a defense asserted at trial. Therefore, having an expert testify about the medical necessity of the marijuana use, cultivation or possession is critical. Read more about Florida's necessity defense as it related to the possession, use, or cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes. 

Dr. Stephen Blythe recently moved back to Melbourne, Florida, after practicing in rural Washington County, Maine, for five years. He is anxious to share his experiences and what he has learned about medical marijuana with his patients and colleagues in Florida.

He would be willing to testify on behalf of any Floridian arrested for what is clearly medical use of marijuana. He looks forward to the legalization of medical marijuana in 2016, but knows that the approval of the referendum will be just the beginning of a long struggle for acceptance of medical marijuana as part of a treatment regimen.

Dr. Blythe is a Board-Certified Family Physician. He graduated from MIT with a BS in Biology in 1974. He has worked in a broad range of health care settings: rural medicine (where he delivered babies and made house calls), refugee medicine, academic medicine (teaching medical students and resident physicians), and emergency medicine.

Prior to going to medical school he worked as a dialysis technician. He discovered that a number of his patients regularly used illegal marijuana prior to their dialysis sessions to lessen the nausea and vomiting associated with that procedure.

He has studied plant medicines for decades – since he experienced first-hand their usefulness: high in the Andes suffering debilitating headaches from the altitude an old Quechua Indian showed him that the leaves of the minty muño plant could be crushed and the vapor inhaled to make the headache go away. It was very effective, but like with many plant medicines, it has never been studied for its potential as a medicine – in this case for migraine headaches.

Dr. Blythe has made several trips to the rainforests of the Americas with Dr. James Duke (author of “The Green Pharmacy”) to study medicinal plants in the rainforest and how they are used by rainforest inhabitants. He is very enthusiastic about medical marijuana; he has seen first-hand how very useful it is in the treatment of a number of conditions such as PTSD, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), Chrohn's disease, and chronic pain.

He has also written a book for his patients: “Medical Marijuana: A Patient Guidebook” (available on Amazon).