Pubdate: Wed, 05 Dec 2012
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Copyright: 2012 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Website: http://www.leaderpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: Sharon Kirkey
Page: A9

CANADIAN DOCTORS RELUCTANT TO PRESCRIBE POT

Doctors in Canada are so skittish about the medical use of marijuana
that a third of MDs who have been asked to endorse a patient's access
to the drug never agree to it, a Canadian Medical Association survey
suggests.

Another 25 per cent of doctors who responded said they would "seldom"
be willing to support a patient's access to medicinal pot, and 64 per
cent are worried that patients who request medical marijuana may only
want it to get high.

The results come as Health Canada prepares to publish proposed new
regulations to its medical marijuana access program that could make
doctors the sole "gatekeepers" to the drug.

The federal agency has proposed removing itself as the ultimate
arbiter in approving or rejecting applications to possess pot for
medical purposes. Instead, doctors alone would approve such requests.

CMA president Dr. Anna Reid says physicians are unfairly being asked
to prescribe a drug without the information they need to use it
appropriately, "and that's just not acceptable for us."

Emergency rooms and psychiatric wards across the country are seeing
large numbers of young people with recurring psychosis - people who
are actively hallucinating and losing touch with reality - "that is
felt by researchers to be actually triggered by marijuana," Reid said.
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