Stirring the medical pot
Adozen years after a landmark Alberta court ruling paved the way for greater use of medicinal marijuana in Canada, federal legislation governing its use has produced a perverse system that’s failing both patients in pain and the doctors charged with their care.
The ridiculous state of legalized marijuana treatment in this country is brought into sharp focus by a new Canadian Medical Association survey that finds many doctors refuse to take part in the program, often for ethical and legal reasons. In the absence of research-based guidelines and training about dosage, potency, sourcing and efficacy, they just don’t feel comfortable filling out that prescription.
The situation only promises to get worse. Rather than continuing to serve as the ultimate arbiter in approving or rejecting marijuana applications, Health Canada is proposing new regulations that would make doctors the sole “gatekeepers” to the drug.
It is 12 years ago this month that Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Darlene Acton ruled that Calgary multiple sclerosis sufferer Grant Krieger had the right to grow and cultivate marijuana, after noting the absurdity in the federal law of the day that gave Canadians suffering from severe illness the right to possess marijuana but no legal outlet for obtaining it. A year later, the federal government made it possible for sick Canadians to buy medicinal marijuana through legal means. But the new treatment protocol hasn’t progressed much further in the intervening years.
The latest CMA survey finds its members are still so nervous about the medical use of marijuana that one-third of MDs who have been asked to endorse a patient’s access to the drug never agree to it. Another 25 per cent of doctors who responded to the survey 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 doctors have a right to be nervous. It is difficult to tell the clever scammers from the legitimate pain sufferers, and the potency of the drug has changed over the years. How are doctors to feel at ease prescribing a drug without the information they need to use it safely and appropriately? On the other hand, how are sick people in pain served by outright blanket refusals, no matter what an individual physician might think about what once was characterized as the demon weed? There has to be a better way. CMA president Dr. Anna Reid says there is great uncertainty about what constitutes a safe dose of marijuana and how to administer the drug. While many patients use marijuana safely, she believes “there’s a potential huge harm to this drug” and doctors are worried about “getting caught in the crossfire.”
Close to 60 per cent of doctors surveyed say they have insufficient information on the risks and benefits of marijuana for medical purposes. Research by Health Canada that might have answered some of those basic questions was terminated by the Harper Conservatives back in 2006.
And now a government not unknown for its tough-on-crime sensibilities is looking to get out of the marijuana market.
Reid warns the proposed changes to the government’s medical marijuana access program could actually see even fewer doctors willing to prescribe it.
It’s the new reefer madness.