Pubdate: Tue, 21 Aug 2001
Source: Newfoundland Evening Telegram (Canada)
Copyright: 2001 The Telegram
Contact:  http://www.thetelegram.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/303
Author: Karl N. Burden

WHO'S PUSHING GRASS NOW?

Re Health Canada to study marijuana as painkiller.

Health Canada's insistence on studying marijuana's painkilling potential is 
suspicious, given the recent announcement from a study published in the 
British Medical Journal. It found that cannabinoids - cannabis in pill or 
injectable form - are no more effective than traditional painkillers.

A second group of researchers reported that even when cannabinoids work 
effectively, such as in controlling the nausea and vomiting related to 
chemotherapy, they have potentially serious side-effects that should limit 
their use.

Common sense tells us that no medication should be administered through 
smoking. There is no way to control quantity, quality or the harmful 
effects of other chemicals inhaled at the same time.

My 18 years' experience working in the substance-abuse field taught me to 
be very suspicious of the forces driving research and government support of 
issues. Could it be that interests controlling drug- laundering money are 
the real force behind this insistence that marijuana has painkilling potential?

Karl N. Burden
Markham, Ont.
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MAP posted-by: Beth