Medicinal cannabis drugs should be in doctors’ toolbox

Stuff co.nz 24 August 2018
Family First Comment: A balanced commentary on cannabis medicine – as opposed to dope or pot.
“Nonetheless, if medical cannabis works, it should be prescribed. This drug, like all others, should be in the toolbox of medical professionals. The ethical obligation to ensure that no citizens are in unnecessary pain is the reason that civilised countries distribute high risk and otherwise illegal drugs for medical reasons, such as opium and its derivatives, relatively easily, albeit within strict protocols to stop any potential abuse.”
www.saynopetodope.org.nz/medicinal

OPINION: As we move towards the third reading of the medical cannabis bill in Parliament, the current debates about this illegal drug as a medical issue as opposed to a liberty issue are getting hopelessly confused.

Cannabis as a liberty issue will be answered by referendum, whereas cannabis as a medical issue needs to be answered with the existing frameworks with which we deal with similar questions.

Here are the problems that need to be navigated.

First, many of the people using cannabis in New Zealand will be self-medicating. Some of these people will be doing it right, others will be doing it wrong.

In some instances, medicinal cannabis will probably be effective. In other instances, it may actually be damaging the person taking the drug, or making no difference at all. Indeed, although there are at approximately 80 conditions for which cannabis has been claimed to be effective, there is only 3 in which there is conclusive or substantial evidence of it delivering the desired results.

Nonetheless, if medical cannabis works, it should be prescribed. This drug, like all others, should be in the toolbox of medical professionals.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/106431792/Medicinal-cannabis-drugs-should-be-in-doctors-toolbox