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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom