Pubdate: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 Source: National Post (Canada) Copyright: 2014 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286 Author: Chris Simpson Note: Dr. Chris Simpson is the president of the Canadian Medical Association. Page: A9 PLAYING POLITICS WITH POT As a non-partisan organization, the CMA could not take part in an overtly political campaign David Asper accuses the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) of being "disingenuous," after we decided not to move forward with the multi-million dollar advertising campaign funded by the government ('It's the CMA that's 'politicizing' the marijuana debate,' Aug. 22). He also accuses us of hypocrisy, because the CMA "is the same organization whose leadership worries about prescribing medical marijuana because of the lack of research on its long term effects." It is true that the CMA has reservations about medical marijuana. There is a booming medical marijuana business in this country. Those who run Canada's legal grow-ops are set on convincing physicians that they should prescribe the product, even though there is little clinical evidence that the medical cannabis can be prescribed safely and not interact with other medications. Another issue is that marijuana has not been approved by the government for medical use, as happens with any other prescription medication. CMA policy recognizes that it may have benefits for some patients, but until we have clinical evidence that medical marijuana is safe and effective, physicians will continue to be asked to prescribe this product with a blindfold on. Yet another challenge with marijuana is its impact on the health of individuals. A marijuana cigarette causes as much as six times the damage to an individual's heart and lung health as a tobacco cigarette. As physicians, we take an oath, and one of the cornerstones of that oath is to "first do no harm." This is why we do not support marijuana smoking, especially among young people. As to why we chose not to participate in Health Canada's campaign about the dangers of marijuana, when the idea was first brought to CMA's attention by officials in the Minister of Health's office, we indicated that we would carefully consider participating in the program. Shortly thereafter, we were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement that would have limited our ability to comment freely on the campaign and the issue itself. This was a challenge, given the CMA's long-standing policies on partnerships and relationships with third parties. A few weeks later, a political pamphlet on the issue of how marijuana affects youth was circulated by a government minister. This created the perception that the issue was, or could become, a political one. A subsequent news story about the campaign and its potential political ramifications could have seriously undermined this important public health issue. As a non-partisan organization, the CMA does not endorse political parties and it was deemed that, following the withdrawal of two other medical organizations, the CMA would not proceed with this government-funded campaign. The CMA will, however, continue to work to raise awareness among Canadians of the health risks of marijuana. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom