Pot Doc Book Review

Since its inception in 1992, medicinal cannabis has been one long bumpy ride. And if you thought it has been smooth terrain for doctors, think again.

Pot Doc is a self-authored memoir by Dr. Michael Geci, an emergency and integrative-care physician living in upstate New York. Dr. Geci has been in the cannabis industry as a practicing doctor for about 14 years.

Pot Doc is an authentic narration of a doctor’s experiences as a pioneer medical cannabis prescriber in Montana. It is a well-told story that vividly captures the high and lows of a trail-blazing career in medical cannabis. The author hints at his divorce and raising his son, giving the story a vulnerable edge that makes it easy to relate to the doctor as “human.” The author delves into the inherent weaknesses of MT 148 and SB 423 that led to the catastrophic collapse of the Montana medical cannabis program.

As he narrates in this memoir, his debut in the cannabis industry was completely by fluke. Upon a friend’s persuasion, Dr. Geci responds to a Craigslist ad that was looking for a doctor to prescribe medical marijuana to patients in Montana, which by then was just rolling out the medical cannabis program. As fate would have it, he gets the job and, just like that, his career takes a drastic turn that completely sets his life on a different trajectory.

Dr Geci admits that initially, he thought that cannabis was nothing more than a hoax. Unfortunately, this is the case with many doctors in the US; ignorance of the ECS is a great impediment to the advancement of medicinal cannabis. How can doctors prescribe a treatment that is based on a system that is not taught in medical school?

When Dr. Geci joined the industry, there were not many cannabinoid labels in the US. This meant that he was basically starting from scratch and working his way up. Taking a rogue industry that mainly operated underground and making it mainstream. There was no standardization of the medicinal cannabis products in the market. As a qualified doctor, this was an enormous setback.

This memoir’s end is tragic and represents the consequences of right-wing extremism at its weakest. After a lot of effort and dedication, the Montana medical cannabis program collapsed. With it, money, friendships, personal freedoms, and hopes came crashing down. Some people were left bankrupt, others were incarcerated, while others died, not being able to cope with what was happening. The doctor found himself deep in debt. The doctor himself was in debt to his knees.

It was a very painful and costly affair, and an unfortunate turn of events that the author attributes to “political forces beyond his control.” This 362-page memoir is brief but weighty. It’s a must-read for anyone seeking to understand or venture into the medical cannabis industry, in whichever state. The hard copy is available on Amazon.