cannabisnews.com: Pot Prescriptions Leave Doctors Cold





Pot Prescriptions Leave Doctors Cold
Posted by CN Staff on July 25, 2003 at 10:18:39 PT
Editorial
Source: Times-Colonist 
Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca MP Keith Martin says he's a doctor, not a farmer, and refuses to distribute seeds for the government. The seeds he and other doctors across Canada are expected to dispense to patients who qualify for them are marijuana seeds which Health Canada, with extreme reluctance, is making available for medical purposes.The government has been forced to make pot available to approved users by the Ontario Superior Court. Health Canada had initiated the medical use of marijuana as a trial, but hadn't made any provision for distributing it. 
The Ontario court found this situation ridiculous, and said in January that if the government didn't come up with a way to distribute medical marijuana -- both seeds and dried weed -- to approved users by July 10, the medical use program would become invalid, and possession of pot would no longer be an offence in Ontario.The government declared it would appeal the decision -- the hearing is to begin next Tuesday -- and only on July 9, one day before the deadline, Health Canada came up with a scheme under which doctors would distribute pot to approved medical users.Canada's doctors want no part of it. Dr. Dana Hanson, president of the Canadian Medical Association, protested that a physician shouldn't be the "gatekeeper" for a substance for which there's inadequate proof of safety or effectiveness.The association has warned since 2001, when former health minister Allan Rock started the medical marijuana program, that doctors don't know enough about pot to inform patients properly about its risks and benefits, threatening what they regard as the all-important patient-physician relationship. It said doctors should not be controlling access to a drug that hasn't been subjected to a pre-market regulatory review of safety, purity and efficacy, as is routine for prescription drugs.The CMA warned doctors after the distribution rules were announced July 9 that they would participate "at their professional and legal peril." It said doctors should be able to "opt in" to the program, creating a registry of providers to which patients could be referred.It said doctors should provide access to pot as a "clinical" trial with monitoring of patients, and be given liability protection by Health Canada, in case things go wrong.Everything has gone wrong in the government's approach to marijuana. It brought in legislation, reluctantly, to make the possession of fewer than five grams of pot a non-criminal offence, but allowed the bill to languish in limbo over the summer holidays. It has authorized the medical use of the drug, but provided no satisfactory way for anyone to take advantage of it. It has cut funds for research into the usefulness of pot for medical purposes.Health Canada's Medical Marijuana Access Regulations are as encouraging to prospective patients as the gruesome health warnings on cigarette packs. All the possible bad side effects are laid out, and users are warned not to smoke it, and if they do, to do it in private.It's still the evil weed as far as Ottawa's concerned.Note: Physicians are as reluctant as the government to make marijuana available for medical use. Health Canada's Guidelines:  http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc/ocma/pdf/marihuana.pdf Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC) Published: Friday, July 25, 2003Copyright: 2003 Times ColonistContact: letters times-colonist.comWebsite: http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/Related Articles & Web Site:Canadians for Safe Accesshttp://www.safeaccess.ca/Ottawa MDs Won't Handle Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16842.shtmlMedicinal Marijuana Use Divides Physicianshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16837.shtmlMDs Balk At Dispensing Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16830.shtmlOttawa Pot Plan Unworkable: Doctors http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16819.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by mayan on July 25, 2003 at 18:24:25 PT
We're Takin' Over
This squabbling about cannabis as a medicine is irrelevant. Everyone & their mom knows that it's medicine. This plant is nobody's to give or take...it is simply everybody's! The war on cannabis is crumbling before our eyes as our numbers grow by the day & the old guard dies off. Cannabis is the medicine & material of this new millenium. Deal with it. Get out of the way or we will move you out of the way. Jim Morrison said it best..."The old get old and the young get stronger,
                 
may take a week and itmay take longer.
                              They got the guns butwe got the numbers.
 
Gonna win, yeah, we're takin' over, come on!" - from The Door's "Five to One"The way out is the way in...The truth about 9/11:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jpdesm/pentagon/investigation77.htmWas 9/11 Allowed to Happen?
http://www.wanttoknow.info/911timeline2pgForeknowledge of 9/11:
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CRG204A.htmlMike Ruppert on Amy Goodman and the 9/11 Latecomers:
http://www.questionsquestions.net/docs04/0518_ruppert911.htmlWhy Did Bush Not Act On 9/11?
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATlearjet.htm9/11 Film Draws Overflow Crowd:
http://onlinejournal.com/Media/050703Lynn/050703lynn.html
 
 
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on July 25, 2003 at 16:39:54 PT:
In Tribal Societies When the Adolescents Rebel...
the elders know it's time for initiation into adulthood. By "just say[ing] no" we avoid our parental and social responsibilities and force our adolescents to look for initiation into adulthood on the black market. This is an unsavory way to achieve adulthood, possibly leading to addiction, incarceration, and death. Some adolescents are lucky to meet caring friends and guides who help them to achieve true philosophical maturity.Each generation has valuable insight to advance human society built into their genetic code. ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question, block and belittle their unique destiny, so that they get filled with resentment and alienation, or support and encourage their destiny, so that they feel a sense of empowerment and belonging.
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Comment #3 posted by E_Johnson on July 25, 2003 at 12:59:26 PT
Back to mouse tails again
"Youths could become pseudo-philosophical, veer away from their academic and career pursuits and even turn rebellious if they are on drugs, however mild they are."Rebellious pseudo-philosophical youths -- if there were a cure for that, we could stop human social evolution dead in its tracks and keep all the mouse tails taped to the bar forever.
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Comment #2 posted by CongressmanSuet on July 25, 2003 at 12:52:08 PT
Its the EnD of the world, I tell ya...
 I love the jump from Pot toffess to Ectacy addiction[which in and of it self is somewhat rare]. Meanwhile Bhong[name says it all] is a cultural fixture, and widely accepted. Gotta love this stuff!
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Comment #1 posted by freedom fighter on July 25, 2003 at 12:11:36 PT
Beware of Pot Toffee!
"Youths could become pseudo-philosophical, veer away from their academic and career pursuits and even turn rebellious if they are on drugs, however mild they are." Dr Suresh Kumarpazff
Narcotic Toffees Could Be A Gateway Drug For Addiction
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