Overgrow The World
The following is an open letter to the Saskatchewan College Of Physicians and Surgeons:
Hello,
I am the director of the Saskatchewan chapter of The National
Organization For The Reform of Marijuana Laws, so my bias is clearly stated.
Recently, we have had a lot of people asking us where to find a doctor who
didn't have a blanket anti-marijuana policy. Many of these requests were
accompanied by complaints of feigned ignorance and even rudeness from doctors
they had already asked for a referral. Originally, we were going to assist
some of these people in making formal complaints about the doctor's conduct,
but on closer research I found that the problem is firmly rooted in your
organization's written policies.
On the page titled "The College of Physicians
and Surgeons of Saskatchewan Marihuana Policy", found at the url
"http://www.quadrant.net/cpss/resource/marihuana/policy.html" the author states:
"The College supports evidence-based medicine. In the absence of scientific information that provides the grounds to support the medical use of marijuana for the conditions set out in the regulations is evidence-based, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan is uncertain of the safety and efficacy of the medical use of marijuana."
This is simply not true.
According to Dr. Hanus at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, "Research on the chemistry and pharmacology of cannabinoids and endocannabinoids has reached enormous proportions, with approximately 15,000 articles on Cannabis sativa L. and cannabinoids and over 2,000 articles on endocannabinoids." (from his article "Pharmacological and therapeutic secrets of plant and brain (endo)cannabinoids" which can be found at the following url: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18777572)
For your convenience, our organization publishes a booklet entitled "Emerging Clinical Applications For Cannabis & Cannabinoids A Review of the Recent Scientific Literature, 2000 — 2010", a free online version can be found at the following url: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7002
If the College believes there is an absence of scientific information, it is because it's members have chosen to ignore that scientific information. Some suggest a combination of cultural and religious-influenced prejudice, as well as economic ties to prescription chemical manufacturers feeds this blatantly anti-scientific bias on the part of the medical community.
It should also be noted that your guidelines for prescribing harmful
chemicals, found at the url
"http://www.quadrant.net/cpss/resource/narcotics.html" are widely ignored by
physicians in this province with little or no consequence. People are often
prescribed opiates and psychiatric drugs with little or no physical
examination, and rarely is the examination as thorough as the one described by
the policy. Perhaps this "make good looking rules and then ignore them"
approach would be better suited to marijuana than to opiates and psychiatric
drugs that are, unlike marijuana, actually dangerous and addictive.
Sincerely,
Daniel Johnson,
Director,
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Saskatchewan
Chapter inc.
www.normlsaskatchewan.com
Yet another Angus Reid Poll shows a majority of Canadians, and a very large majority of Saskatchewan residents, want marijuana legalized.http://www.angusreidstrategies.com/polls-analysis/opinion-polls/canadians-clearly-support-ideas-deal-gang-violence
Noam Chomsky On Marijuana Prohibition Important article on Jury Nullification, everybody should know this so read it now.
Click here for the Regina Global Marijuana March 2009 videos
