Monday, June 18, 2007

Dosage debate has pot users smokin' mad

OTTAWA -- Health Canada has been contacting doctors who prescribe medical marijuana for their government-approved patients, advising them to keep the dosages low.
Some users say that not only violates doctor-patient confidentiality, it's also wrong for bureaucrats to make judgments about the medical needs of people they've never seen.
"A person's medication should be between him and his doctor," said Tony Adams, 60, a medical marijuana user in Victoria.
Adams, a licensed user who's been smoking seven grams of marijuana daily, recently applied to Health Canada to increase the dose to 10 grams, with his doctor's authorization.
Official approval from Ottawa is needed so Adam can legally grow the appropriate number of marijuana plants, set by Health Canada at five plants for each daily gram.
But a program official in Ottawa challenged Adams' doctor in a telephone call, saying most patients need no more than five grams. Adams, who has severe arthritis and degenerative disc disease, later received a new licence for just five grams a day.
"I'm just really (angry) about the whole situation." read more

3 comments:

Beeezo said...

what happened to privacy.... doctor- patient confidentiality

Smurl said...

You know... but since its a drug like that you know whenever possible patient doctor priviledge goes right out the window!

Anonymous said...

I thought you knew "the constitution is just a piece of paper"
Direct quote from George Bush.