The Canadian Medical Association courted controversy with another canna-conservative editorial in its magazine CMAJ. (CMAJ provoked argument in October when it published an editorial protesting legalization.)
- In the new opinion piece, three rheumatology MDs address sensible concerns such as lack of reliable clinical evidence about the effect of MED on various conditions, the politicization of a medical subject, and the power of MED corporations to influence public perception of medical need.
- The piece enters stranger territory when the authors lament, “The perception of cannabis as being safer than opioids may have been reinforced by its recent legalization for recreational use in some jurisdictions.”
- The authors decry the “emergent medical cannabis industry” as non-medical. They also criticize patients who expect doctors to be knowledgeable about cannabis.
- ER physician Ian Mitchell identified connections between one author and oft-fined pharma producer UCB, and noted other pharma producers spent fortunes to oppose MED legalization before profiting from it.
Twitter - Trina Fraser, Deepak Anand, and Wildfire Canada CEO Mark Spear all attacked the piece.
Twitter
Quick Hits
- Global News explored cannabis addiction in detail.
- A survey of focus groups found most proposed health warnings for edibles were understandable, but many misunderstood visual warnings to avoid pairing alcohol and cannabis as a suggestion one might enjoy doing just that. They also thought the phrase “start low and go slow” sacrificed dosage information in favour of rhyming. iPolitics
