Pubdate: Wed, 02 Oct 2002
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2002 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact:  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: W. Gifford-Jones MD

MEDICAL MARIJUANA BAN AN UNJUST LAW

The Doctor Game - W. Gifford-Jones MD.

HOW would you feel if you were suffering the terrible symptoms of cancer, 
AIDS and other serious diseases? If you knew that smoking marijuana 
provided some relief, but then be told that Anne McLellan, the new federal 
minister of health, had vetoed the plan to supply pot.

I don't believe anyone without such agonizing symptoms knows how 
disappointed and frustrated these patients must be. What she has done is 
unbelievable hypocrisy. What's worse is that the Canadian Medical 
Association, in its infinite wisdom, has agreed with her.

McLellan claims she cannot agree to marijuana when she's also dedicated to 
fighting tobacco use. What rubbish! It's a ridiculous argument. These 
patients need pot for medicinal purposes that has nothing to do with 
cigarette use.

Then the minister argues she's not comfortable providing marijuana until 
clinical trials prove it is safe. Come on! Let's be sensible. Have you 
considered how uncomfortable patients are day after day retching and in 
pain? And you ask them to wait for years? They will be dead by that time.

The irony continues. The honourable minister says that marijuana should be 
subject to the same standards as other legitimate drugs. I'd suggest that 
she examine the list of prescription drugs. Most of these legal drugs have 
a list of adverse reactions as long as your arm, some fatal.

The minister of health should know that thousands of patients die every 
year from the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to treat 
arthritis. Others from taking cholesterol-lowering drugs. But I've never 
heard of anyone dying from smoking pot. One could argue that prescription 
drugs should be subject to the same safety standard as marijuana!

Part of McLellan's decision to snuff out marijuana was due to a doctor who 
criticized the medical use of pot at the last meeting of the Canadian 
Medical Association (CMA). I've listened to this type of self-righteous 
physician before. They are always prone to foist their moral but 
undocumented views on others and love to hear themselves talk. Surely 
McLellan should know there are thousands of other doctors who do not share 
his view.

What is more appalling is the lack of wisdom of the CMA. It wants clinical 
trials done even though it will take years to conduct them. Even when it is 
aware that clinical evidence shows that marijuana has helped many patients 
suffering from AIDS, cancer and epilepsy.

Its excuse? It is concerned that doctors could be open to lawsuits. That's 
a lame argument. I can't envision a situation where a patient would sue a 
physician who has prescribed marijuana for compassionate reasons. This 
attitude is simply a cop-out. It's another example of the conservative 
medical organizations that have never been in the forefront of social change.

Allan Rock, the former minister of health, took a more realistic approach. 
He approved spending $5.7 million to grow marijuana in a Flin Flon mine 
shaft. He realized that the potential harm to the lungs from inhaling pot 
smoke was negligible to the medical benefits from its use. But, once again, 
common sense remains such an uncommon commodity.

This whole debate reminds me of another fight years ago: The years I spent 
trying to legalize heroin to treat terminal cancer pain. The Canadian 
Cancer Society, cancer specialists, CMA, pharmacists and RCMP all opposed 
it, claiming it wasn't needed. Yet British doctors had used heroin 
effectively for 80 years. (If interested, the details are covered in my 
book You're Going To Do What?) Finally, McLellan wants the Supreme Court to 
decide this matter. But this requires years of waiting for a verdict. 
Besides, this should not be a matter for judges in ermine robes. It's 
another devious cop-out for a politician fearful of controversy when it 
should be a simple, straightforward medical decision between physician and 
patient.

Currently there are about 800 patients who have applied for the use of 
marijuana on compassionate grounds. The federal government has approved 
these cases.

Now, due to McLellan's shilly-shallying, they will continue to retch, have 
needless epileptic attacks and debilitating pain.

Human compassion, and that alone, should make marijuana available to 
patients who need it. It's too bad that politicians, doctors and moralists, 
along with Anne McLellan, can't be made to suffer these symptoms for 24 
long hours. How quickly unjust, unreasonable, cruel laws would change.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom