Marijuana and Social Issues

"Health Canada does not endorse the use of marijuana, nor is it an approved drug in this country, nor has it gone through any of the clinical trials that other pharmaceutical products that are approved in this country have gone through."
"The majority of the physician community do not want to prescribe it, they don't want to be put in a situation where they're pressured to prescribe it and I encourage them to not prescribe it if they're not comfortable with it."
"I don't think there is anyone better to make that decision than a physician with their patient."
Rona Ambrose Canadian Minister of Health, Health Canada 

Health Minister Rona Ambrose delivers remarks to the 147th General Council of the Canadian Medical Association in Ottawa on Monday, Aug. 18, 2014. Photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Addressing the Canadian Medical Association's annual general meeting in Ottawa, Minister Ambrose sought to reassure the Canadian Medical Association doctors who feel they have been placed in an "untenable" position through having been tasked with representing the sole gatekeepers to legal pot. It was the position of outgoing president Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti that many people seek to manipulate their doctors into thinking they require marijuana for medicinal purposes when what they really want is access to recreational pot.

When, pointed out Minister Ambrose "mid-level bureaucrats" at Health Canada, and not physicians, were the arbitrators in approving or rejecting marijuana applications for medicinal purposes, "the average authorization was between 54 to 90 joints a day -- much beyond what is recognized internationally in any way as an acceptable amount", she stated.

Under the new regime, where physicians are the ones to make those decisions the average amount authorized by doctors has fallen from 17 grams daily to four grams a day. "That's a substantial decrease in the amount of marijuana that is being prescribed and it's in line with the available medical evidence of what a patient would use per day", she emphasized, defending as well, a controversial, taxpayer-funded anti-pot campaign that had latterly become politically charged.

Because of what the Canadian Medical Association and the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada viewed as the politicization of the marijuana issue for medical purposes, all declined Health Canada's invitation for them to lend their logos to the government's advertising warning young people of the dangers of marijuana use. Wanting no part in what they saw as a "political football", impinging on their neutrality.

The leader of the Liberal Party of Canada characterized the government's ad campaign as a direct criticism of his own position as the leader of an opposition party who favours legalizing marijuana outright. "Let me be clear: Telling kids to not smoke pot is not a particular attack on Justin Trudeau by Health Canada", said Minister Ambrose, addressing the issue directly. "It is sound public health policy backed by science.

"Whether pot is legal or illegal, the health risks of marijuana to youth remain the same and we should all be concerned about them. Telling kids to not smoke marijuana is not politics. It is good public health policy and it is based in science, and we agree on this issue." Validating her request asking doctors' groups "to work together to continue to warn young people about the health risks of smoking marijuana."