The Canadian Medical Association Journal waded yet again into canna-controversy with another alarmist opinion commentary about “health considerations” related to the legalization of edibles.
CMAJ
- Kamploops, BC ER physician Ian Mitchell immediately noted the report repeated the urban myth of cannabis being tainted with narcotics or opioids, retorting “there has NEVER been a confirmed case of cannabis contaminated with narcotics. This is a complete myth that is typically spread by Trump officials.”
Twitter—Ian Mitchell, The Straight - MED advocates puzzled over the call for physicians to discourage the consumption of homemade edibles, the only edibles strong enough to provide symptom relief to many regular MED users.
Twitter—Megan Henderson
The CMA and its Journal have previously provoked controversy by calling for the end of the MED system, dismissing MED as non-medical, and expressing skepticism about legalization (predicting possible health harms that don’t seem to have occurred). They’ve been accused of taking such divisive positions without consulting the association’s member physicians.
CBC Calgary, CMAJ, Twitter—Shekhar Parmar
The Council of Chief Medical Officers of Health’s statement on reducing health risks when consuming 2.0 products was a lot more sensible than the CMAJ’s.
Quick Hits
- La Presse surveyed cannabis researchers across Canada, who reiterated reports Health Canada’s Office of Clinical Trials is demanding information even LPs don’t have, preventing research from getting off the ground. In a subsequent editorial, the paper called the situation “Kafkaesque” and “aberrant” and concluded it was easier to research cannabis before legalization.
La Presse—In French - On a related note, the US leads the world on cannabis research and development, but they can’t export cannabis (or even move it between states) because of federal prohibition. That’s left the global market for Canada to fill, if we can manage not to bungle it.
Denver Post
