cannabisnews.com: Going to Pot to Ease Pain Sparks Furious Debate! 





Going to Pot to Ease Pain Sparks Furious Debate! 
Posted by FoM on March 05, 1999 at 08:35:27 PT

Money for proposed clinical trials of marijuana to ease pain might be better spent on making more palliative care available, says the director of such programs at the Cross Cancer Institute and Grey Nuns Hospital. 
The current interest in marijuana is similar to what happened in 1983 when the government decided to examine the use of heroin and eventually legalized it for medical use, Dr. Eduardo Bruera said Thursday. He was reacting to Health Minister Allan Rock's statement Wednesday that he's asked his officials to come up with a plan for clinical trials on the medical use of marijuana and ways to make a safe supply of it available to those who might need it. "We told them that spending a lot of money in legalizing heroin and making heroin available to cancer patients was not likely to make much difference," Bruera said. "On the other hand, the issues of access and care for the terminally ill were not being addressed. "My concern is that we don't have the agenda taken over again by another product that has public profile, and in the process of doing that, we do not address some of the major issues of accessing palliative care and the major problems of our terminally ill patients." Bruera said it was unlikely that his programs would become involved in clinical trials of marijuana. There have been cannabis studies, including one at the Cross Cancer Institute in the 1980s, that showed marijuana did help alleviate nausea in chemotherapy patients, it helped AIDS and cancer patients regain their appetites to some extent and had some limited effectiveness in reducing pain, he said. The study at the Cross involved derivatives of marijuana that were given in pill form or intravenously. "It seemed to work better than a placebo," Bruera said. "But in the last 10 years, there have been major, major developments and there are drugs that are much, much better that do not cause problems with perception and the little bit of confusion that marijuana causes." But those who use pot to alleviate symptoms of their ailments say they already know it works for them and its use should not be restricted to the terminally ill. Grant Krieger, a 44-year-old who says marijuana gave him back a quality of life he was losing to multiple sclerosis, said Rock's move is a step forward, but it leaves a lot to be desired. All the clinical trials will do is waste three years of precious time, said Krieger who has been arrested and fined twice for trafficking. "People in Canada currently using it as a medicine already know it's a medicine," said Krieger who moved to Calgary from Saskatchewan last year. "I know what it does to me, and it's a very safe and effective medication for me." Krieger said he's working with a group of people in Calgary and Saskatchewan to form a non-profit "compassion club" modelled after similar clubs in Vancouver and San Francisco to supply pot from local growers to medicinal users. Troy Stewart, who runs the True North Hemp Company on Whyte Avenue and is a director of a group seeking to decriminalize marijuana use, said the government's move is overdue. The only hazard of using this herb is being thrown in jail, but there are a number of benefits, he said. Harland Callioux, a customer in Stewart's store, said smoking marijuana is the only way he can stimulate his appetite and keep from being more underweight than he already is. "I've had a weight problem all my life," said the 42-year-old heavy equipment operator. "I'm basically skinny as a stick." But he goes to trial in May on a charge of possessing marijuana for trafficking after police seized 107 cannabis plants from his home. His defence will be that the supply was only for his own medicinal use. Some people treat his argument as some kind of joke, but it's no different than what seriously overweight people go through, he said. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/alberta/030599ab7.html
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