Many risks with using cannabis
Dear editor: Mark Billesberger (World won’t end when pot is legal, Herald, Letters, Sept. 17) disputes my assertion that if there are medical benefits of cannabis, they remain largely unknown (“We will regret legal cannabis,” Okanagan Weekend, Sept. 15).
To make his case he refers us to videos on YouTube that claim that cannabis is useful in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and cerebral palsy.
One supposes therefore that Billesberger also believes that the world is flat, that Obama controls the weather, that Queen Elizabeth practises medicinal cannibalism, and that the moon is a giant spaceship, each of which has been proven: on YouTube videos.
Placebo controlled clinical trials are the gold standard for showing therapeutic benefit and such trials, not YouTube videos, are what regulatory agencies use to approve drugs.
To date, there have been very few placebo controlled clinical trials with cannabis. The reason for this is straightforward: while such trials are typically funded by private companies, in the case of cannabis there is little incentive to do so because it would be difficult to obtain or enforce patents on the findings.
Why would company A spend a lot of money on a clinical trial when, in the absence of patent protection, companies B, C and D could equally benefit from the data to promote their cannabis products? Hence publicly funded (i.e. from tax revenues) clinical trials are likely the only way we are going to understand fully the potential medical benefits and harms of cannabis.
In contrast to Billesberger’s silly hyperbole regarding zombies and Reefer Madness, I believe that Canadians deserve to understand the full range of risks and benefits of cannabis so that they are informed before considering its use.
Additionally, if Billesberger could drag himself away from YouTube videos long enough to examine the scientific literature he would quickly come to the conclusion that there are significant risks associated with cannabis consumption, most notably in youth and young adult populations. Chris Fibiger
Kelowna