Pubdate: Wed, 05 Dec 2012
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Sharon Kirkey
Page 9

DOCTORS RELUCTANT TO BE GATEKEEPERS TO MEDICINAL POT, SURVEY INDICATES

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 to the survey said they
would "seldom" be willing to support a patient's access to medicinal
pot; 64 per cent are worried that patients who request medical
marijuana might 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 said physicians are unfairly being asked
to prescribe a drug without the information they need to use it safely
and 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," said Reid,
an emergency physician from Yellowknife. She said marijuana is no
longer the same drug it was when she started practising medicine 25
years ago. "We know for a fact that marijuana is much stronger now.

"These are the kinds of concerns that have physicians very worried
about prescribing it, when we don't know what a safe dose is [and] we
don't know how to use it," Reid said.

While many patients use marijuana safely, "there's a potential huge
harm to this drug." Doctors are worried about "getting caught in the
cross-fire," she said.

The proposed changes to the government's medical marijuana access
program could see fewer doctors willing to prescribe it, she said.

The CMA survey was sent to more than 2,200 physicians who have agreed
to be surveyed online several times a year on various issues. In all,
607 responses were received, with a response rate of 27 per cent.

It's not a random sample, meaning, "it's not necessarily
representative of the entire physician population," Reid said. "But
it's a good snapshot of what physicians are thinking in general."

Among the findings:

- - More than half (57 per cent) said they had insufficient information
on the risks and benefits of marijuana for medical purposes.

- - 42 per cent of those surveyed said that patients "seldom" ask about
using medical marijuana; 28 per cent said they have never been asked
and 27 per cent said they are "sometimes" asked. Only four per cent
reported being asked often.

- - 35 per cent of doctors who had been asked about access said they
never support such requests, "while 40 per cent would do so at least
some of the time," according to a summary posted on the CMA's website;

- - Most (66 per cent) respondents agreed that Health Canada should
offer liability protection to doctors who support a patient's request
for marijuana.
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MAP posted-by: Matt