DOCTORS QUESTION USE OF POT TO TREAT ILLNESS

No Proof Drug Is Safe And Therapeutic

Doctors who specialize in treating addictions say they have misgivings
about federal Health Minister Allan Rock's regulations for the medical use
of marijuana.

The regulations "place most physicians in this country in a serious ethical
quandary," said Dr.Nady el-Guebaly, head of Foothills Hospital addiction
centre in Calgary, and a spokesman for the Canadian Society of Addiction
Medicine.

The association, representing doctors across Canada specializing in
treating marijuana, alcohol and other addictions, released a statement
Tuesday in which they raised their concerns.

El-Guebaly said there's only limited evidence that cannabis is effective in
any conditions, and evidence of the benefits of smoking the drug is purely
hearsay.

The regulations suggest patients will smoke the cannabis, yet no scientific
literature supports the use of smoking marijuana as a method of delivering
the active ingredients in the treatment of illness, he said.

At the same time, it's been shown there are significant ill effects for
some users of cannabis, said el-Guebaly.

The long-awaited regulations governing the possession and production of
marijuana for medical purposes, published Friday, allow terminal patients,
people with AIDS, multiple sclerosis, spinal-cord injuries, epilepsy,
severe arthritis and other serious conditions to use the drug if it eases
their symptoms.

The proposed regulations outline specific rules for patients and caregivers
to possess and cultivate marijuana.

There are in each disease cited in the regulations alternative therapies,
says the society in its response to the proposals.

Cannabis is never the first-line treatment for any known medical condition.
The society's policy states "that, overall there is more risk than benefit
in the use of cannabis products for medicinal purposes.

"Although the government may wish to call its plans to regulate marijuana
'compassionate medicine,' it must not yet be considered as 'medical' - for
smoking marijuana has not met the rigorous criteria required before a drug
can be considered both safe and therapeutic," said Dr. Bill Campbell,
president of CSAM and a Calgary family physician treating addicts.

Marijuana decriminalization, cultivation, distribution, and use for
recreation, is considered by the society of addiction experts to be a legal
and social issue - not a medical one.

The association said it hopes government will be prepared to adequately
treat those individuals who have developed dependency or other adverse
consequences from the use of marijuana.

The new regulations suggest the method of delivery will be by inhalation,
or smoking, which means all the other compounds that may be harmful are
also inhaled in an attempt to obtain the active compounds.

It's been calculated that smoking three to four cannabis cigarettes a day
causes the same damage to health as 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day,
says the society.

Among those who have taken cannabis, one in 10 is at risk of dependence.
Other problems include risk of psychotic episodes and aggravation of
schizophrenia.

Cannabis is the most common drug, apart from alcohol, detected in drivers
involved in fatal accidents or stopped for impaired driving, the society says.