cannabisnews.com: Hands Up If You Puff Loopholes Abound





Hands Up If You Puff Loopholes Abound
Posted by FoM on February 05, 2002 at 14:27:12 PT
By Brian Kappler 
Source: Montreal Gazette 
Our federal health department has given about 300 people permission to smoke marijuana as medical treatment. But a survey for the health department, made public over the weekend, reveals that fully one million Canadians now say they smoke the stuff "for medical reasons."If we surmise that a lot of these people are too busy watching M*A*S*H reruns to follow the news, we may concede that many of the medical marijuana million didn't see a little story last week that pointed that smoking marijuana - for any reason - is in fact medically quite bad for you.
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada (PSFC), one of our leading anti-tobacco vigilante groups, reminded us all that marijuana is packed with carcinogens, and has more tar than tobacco. Even for people already gravely ill, they say, doctors willing to prescribe the stuff must ask themselves some serious ethical questions.Meanwhile, the group that provides doctors' insurance and the Canadian Medical Association have both recently issued warnings of their own. The CMA and the Canadian Medical Malpractice Association have warned the country's 56,000 physicians that lawsuits loom over any MD who prescribes marijuana without plenty of data - is it really good for pain from this patient's particular ailment? Better than "regular" drugs? In what dosage?Eager To Skate Around  (At the scientific level, there's contradictory evidence about marijuana as a pain-killer; other drugs do at least as well in many cases, some studies say. It's hard to imagine any other drug being rushed into the marketplace while so many scientific doubts linger.)These two stories taken together - the poll and the PSFC warning - should embarrass all those who were so eager to skate around the marijuana laws.That group would include the legal-dope activists who claimed to be concerned with the pain of a few people who have terminal or at least severe illnesses. No doubt compassion was one motive, but it certainly proved to be a magnificent Trojan horse for the wider legalization campaign, didn't it?And that group would also include Allan Rock, who was the health minister who championed this medical loophole, and was happy to have his picture snapped in a little forest of leafy green plants down a mine in Flin Flon, Man., where the government was growing its own stash. Rock's eagerness to "compromise" on this issue carried a tell-tale whiff of political ambition.So Rock and the activists used each other to poke a little ventilation hole in the law. And now the smoke is just pouring through.This country probably should relax the law on marijuana, not by legalizing it but by making simple possession less than a criminal offence. And we need a full, serious debate on that issue.A Truly Hopeless Mess But we certainly don't need this sort of back-door legalization.Very few marijuana permits have been issued, largely because Rock's rules are a bureaucratic minefield of unequal justice, comparable only to gun control as a truly hopeless mess: Some people are allowed to smoke marijuana, provided they grow it themselves. Others are allowed to buy it, but only from authorized sellers, who may not have enough supply. . . .This shambles appears to be the result of bureaucrats trying to judge each case individually, a slow, imprecise process that leads only to inefficiency and inequality. No wonder people just assume the law says it's OK to smoke up if you say it's medical.It's tempting to say, in fact, that where the private sector makes marijuana available on every street corner at "popular prices," the bureaucrats are creating a labyrinth of permission certificates, exemption documents and tables of guidelines. Of course the bikers are bad guys, but at least the only paper they want to see for their product is money.People with grave medical conditions need compassion, attention and state-of-the-art medication. They do not need to be pawns in someone's game.And laws need to be wise and clear, and they must be carefully and fairly enforced. The current marijuana laws are just the opposite.Newshawk: puff_tuffSource: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)Author: Brian Kappler Published: Tuesday, February 05, 2002Copyright: 2002 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.Contact: letters thegazette.southam.caWebsite: http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/Related Articles & Web Site:Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmMedical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmMost 'Medical' Marijuana Use Illegal: Pollhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11905.shtmlSuffering Few Who Legally Possess Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11135.shtml 
END SNIP -->
Snipped
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #2 posted by Ethan Russo MD on February 06, 2002 at 10:11:30 PT:
LTE's
I sent my response to the stories of last week (as seen on these pages) to several papers in Canada, none of which printed it.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on February 05, 2002 at 17:49:29 PT
what?
"It's hard to imagine any other drug being rushed into the marketplace while so many scientific doubts linger."Rushed into the marketplace? It's been "in the marketplace" in Canada for hundreds of years! These people are badly confused.Packed with carcinogens? OK, where are the people with cancer from MJ? OK, where is the PERSON with cancer? Of course nobody can find one because he/she doesn't exist!
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment