Pubdate: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC) Copyright: 2014 Prince George Citizen Contact: http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350 Author: Nathan Giede Page: 6 MARIJUANA'S EFFECT ON HEALTHCARE April 20 is a day of days for marijuana users. And this year, 4/20 was markedly more significant as it was celebrated legally for the first time within the states of Washington and Colorado, both of which legalized the use of marijuana late last year. Politicians of all stripes are eagerly watching the end of prohibition to see if it results in more revenues and less crime or the social chaos prophesied by anti-legalization critics. Meanwhile, people in British Columbia are divided on the issue: some believe marijuana usage is a private choice that ought to be left to citizens, while others argue that it is a public nuisance that requires legislation. Both these views have merit, but there's something even bigger at stake, although it's often overlooked: the cost of health care in British Columbia after marijuana is legalized. Copious amounts of peer reviewed research consistently shows two results for marijuana users: a higher risk for cancer and the development of mental illness, ranging from depression to severe schizophrenia. While Canadians have tried to battle preventable diseases with "sin taxes" on items like cigarettes and alcohol, marijuana's unique side effects on the brain are inestimable. To put it bluntly, psychiatric treatment is much more expensive than chemotherapy: we can mass produce machines and medicine, but we cannot mass produce therapy and therapists. Furthermore, research is now suggesting even moderate use of marijuana can permanently corrode certain mental processes. This means that many young people, who only smoke marijuana a few times a week, are permanently reducing their mental capacity for the rest of their lives. But there's a piece of the picture that's missing from this litany of cannabis related problems: healthcare in Canada is public. Medical insurance premiums reflect the cost of administering all the healthcare in B.C. divided by the number of paying members in B.C. Therefore, any increase in the costs and burdens of the healthcare system are felt by all dues paying members. Upon the legalization of marijuana, these costs could increase steeply in the short term and absolutely skyrocket in the long term, especially when severe mental illness is considered. Furthermore, unlike patients suffering from alcohol- and tobacco-related illnesses, the cannabis-affected patient is more likely to not be able to go back to work, which means his taxes and medical premiums drop out of the system, thus compounding the cost for others. What can be done to reduce these costs on society? Simple - it's time to correlate behaviors and premiums. For too long, Canadians have avoided this conclusion, because it sounds like an "American style" healthcare policy. But the fact is that "sin taxes" don't work, not only because they automatically create a black market, but because you can never directly correlate the cost of treatment to the mark-up on certain items. As a country and a province, it's time to grow up and face the fact that people's good and bad behavior needs be reflected by what they pay for medicine. There is a certain level of service that can and must be guaranteed for all: maternity care, vaccinations, trauma care, and palliative care. But beyond these core items, individuals and families must be given the chance to make decisions about their health insurance with a consumer's rationality, weighing the extent of coverage, its cost, and its health requirements so that the tragedy of our common healthcare model is stopped. Sadly, it will take marijuana legalization to bring much needed reforms into play for our medical system. But maybe that makes sense, because a drug that's sole purpose is for "drifting away" is most in need of some grounding in the hard costs that society shares. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt