DOCS LEERY OF POT FOR THE DYING

Many doctors tending to the terminally ill are still extremely cautious
about the use of medical marijuana despite growing pressure to embrace it.

Palliative-care specialists attending a national conference in Edmonton
were told yesterday that clinical trials haven't yet shown that pot is an
effective medical therapy for those with terminal illnesses. They also
heard marijuana can produce negative side-effects, especially in older
patients.

"Patients often get what we call disphoria, which is a sense of
unwell-being, and this can last for hours, up to days," said Dr. Ingrid de
Kock of the Regional Palliative Care Program in Edmonton. "Patients might
also go so far as to get hallucinations or acute anxiety attacks or acute
mania.

"We have so many medications that have better side-effect profiles in
palliative-care patients, that do an even better job than what marijuana
possibly can."

De Kock said there's growing pressure by some patient advocacy groups for
doctors to embrace medical marijuana.