Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2015
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Gordon Clark
Page: 15

MEDICAL POT PROPONENTS ARE BLOWING SMOKE

With the despotic dopes running Vancouver City Hall expected 
Wednesday to approve their wholly improper "licensing" of so-called 
"medical-marijuana" shops, the release Tuesday of the most 
comprehensive study yet into pot's effectiveness as medicine couldn't 
come at a better time - or be more deliciously ironic for critics of the plan.

With the exception of "moderate-quality" evidence that pot controls 
pain and spasticity in people with multiple sclerosis, the 
meta-analysis of 79 studies involving more than 6,000 patients 
published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found 
that there is little evidence that marijuana is effective for a host 
of ailments pot proponents often claim it can treat.

Those included "nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, weight gain 
in HIV infection, sleep disorders and Tourette syndrome." You may as 
well take a sugar tablet.

The report also found that using marijuana caused a host of adverse 
events, including "dizziness, dry mouth, nausea, fatigue, somnolence, 
euphoria, vomiting, disorientation, drowsiness, confusion, loss of 
balance and hallucination."

Another study published in JAMA Tuesday found that the amount of 
active ingredient claimed in medical marijuana bought in U.S. stores 
and tested by scientists was seldom accurate, at times less than 
promised, at other times greater, making dosing the drug virtually impossible.

An editorial accompanying the research by two psychiatrists at Yale 
University's medical school, Dr. Deepak Cyril D'Souza and Dr. Mohini 
Ranganathan, said that the political push to legitimize medical 
marijuana was advancing quicker than legitimate research into whether 
it is effective and safe.

"Perhaps it is time to place the horse back in front of the cart," 
the good doctors wrote, calling on governments to support proper 
research to find out if marijuana should be used to treat illness.

They also raised cautions identical to ones found in the study 
released last week by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse 
concerning the potential serious effects of marijuana use on the 
developing brains of young people, in particular its links to schizophrenia.

All of this makes Vancouver City Hall's rush to license pot shops 
seem rash and irresponsible.

City manager Penny Ballem, who is reportedly the architect of the 
licensing scheme, is a medical doctor. It is shocking that she would 
move ahead with a plan to legitimize marijuana as a medicine knowing 
full well that she and others at city hall are abandoning 
evidence-based decision making.

It's also bizarre that city hall officials do not appear to be 
heeding the professional standards and guidelines of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons of B.C., relating to marijuana. That document 
notes that "few reliable published studies are available on the 
medical benefits of marijuana" and that "physicians are advised that 
they should not prescribe any substance for their patients without 
knowing the risks, benefits, potential complications and drug 
interactions associated with the use of that agent."

The college also warns B.C. doctors that "the only legal source of 
marijuana for medical purposes is that provided by a licensed 
producer" - not the 94 gang-linked illegal pot shops city hall would 
legitimize through its licensing scheme.

It's no surprise that Vancouver is the only major city in Canada to 
take such a permissive attitude to pot shops - Vision Vancouver 
counts those with liberal views on pot among its supporters. The only 
thing stronger than the smell of pot in the city is the stench of politics.

Then again, Mayor Gregor Robertson and his team have always had a 
special hubris in shoving themselves into areas of government that 
are the jurisdiction of Victoria and Ottawa. The issues surrounding 
marijuana, medical or otherwise, are within the domain of the federal 
government through the Criminal Code and Health Canada, which has the 
expertise, unlike Vancouver City Hall, to regulate drugs.

City hall has no business regulating, and profiting from, medical 
marijuana shops, which everyone knows are primarily a scam for people 
who like to get high, but it will.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom