Robert Celt
New Member
The Pennsylvania Medical Cannabis Society (PAMCS) and its members would like to applaud the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED) for their recent statement calling upon the FDA to reclassify cannabis as a Schedule II rather than Schedule I drug to facilitate further research.
While this is an important and positive first step, there are several inaccuracies communicated by PAMED President Scott Shapiro that are in need of correction. These inaccuracies perpetuate common, easily disproved myths about medical cannabis, while preventing and delaying bolder steps from being taken. Most importantly, they also do not reflect the beliefs of a great many Pennsylvania doctors who eagerly await the passage of Senate Bill 3.
In a recent letter to the editor, PAMED President Scott Shapiro, a Pennsylvania doctor, said that physicians in states other than Pennsylvania aren't frequently prescribing medical cannabis because more "FDA-approved clinical research" is needed and doctors "have too many questions."
Perhaps Mr. Shapiro and his organization may have found more support for providing patients with an alternative treatment option by asking physicians in other states if they were "recommending" medical cannabis rather than "prescribing" it, as cannabis is not "prescribed," but "recommended" by physicians in other states where medical cannabis is legal for medical use.
Mr. Shapiro's comments regarding FDA testing and research are troubling because, as a physician, Mr. Shapiro knows that whole plant medical cannabis will never fit the FDA model since every single compound would have to be isolated, patented and tested.
In short, Mr. Shapiro saying that more FDA testing and research is needed is a polite way of voicing opposition to a therapeutic, non-toxic, non-addictive medical alternative to big-pharma's synthetic, toxic and addictive drugs.
The Drug Enforcement Agency's Administrative Law Judge, Francis Young, concluded in 1988 that cannabis was "one of the safest therapeutic substances known to man."
With that in mind, the residents of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the members of the House and Senate of Pennsylvania, should ask Mr. Shapiro and the PAMED how many deaths occurred in 2015 from medicinal cannabis in the United States of America, in comparison to how many deaths resulted from doctor-prescribed opioids in Pennsylvania alone.
A study accepted for publication in May of 2014 by JAMA Internal Medicine found that medical cannabis laws are associated with significantly lower state-level opioid overdose mortality rates. In the 23 U.S. states where medical cannabis has been legalized, deaths from opioid overdoses have decreased by almost 25 percent.
In regards to deaths from cannabis, renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht appeared before the House of Representatives in 2010 and was quoted as saying:
"For the past 48 years I have been working as a private forensic pathologist, hospital pathologist, government pathologist and medical-legal forensic scientific consultant for attorneys and organizations throughout the country doing autopsies including some in foreign countries. I myself have done about 17,000 autopsies in these 53 years going back to '57. And I have reviewed, supervised or signed off on about 36,000 additional autopsies. As I sit here before you, sir, I have never signed out a case of death due to acute marijuana or acute cannabinoid toxicity, not one. Nor have I seen in the 36,000 other cases such a diagnosis as the cause of death."
The Pennsylvania Medical Cannabis Society encourages members of the House of Representatives to vote in support of SB 3 when it is brought up for consideration, and to question whose interests Scott Shapiro and the PA Medical Society have in mind, big-pharma's, or the suffering residents of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Correcting Record On Medical Marijuana
Author: Sven Hosford
Contact: YDR
Photo Credit: UrosPoteko
Website: YDR
While this is an important and positive first step, there are several inaccuracies communicated by PAMED President Scott Shapiro that are in need of correction. These inaccuracies perpetuate common, easily disproved myths about medical cannabis, while preventing and delaying bolder steps from being taken. Most importantly, they also do not reflect the beliefs of a great many Pennsylvania doctors who eagerly await the passage of Senate Bill 3.
In a recent letter to the editor, PAMED President Scott Shapiro, a Pennsylvania doctor, said that physicians in states other than Pennsylvania aren't frequently prescribing medical cannabis because more "FDA-approved clinical research" is needed and doctors "have too many questions."
Perhaps Mr. Shapiro and his organization may have found more support for providing patients with an alternative treatment option by asking physicians in other states if they were "recommending" medical cannabis rather than "prescribing" it, as cannabis is not "prescribed," but "recommended" by physicians in other states where medical cannabis is legal for medical use.
Mr. Shapiro's comments regarding FDA testing and research are troubling because, as a physician, Mr. Shapiro knows that whole plant medical cannabis will never fit the FDA model since every single compound would have to be isolated, patented and tested.
In short, Mr. Shapiro saying that more FDA testing and research is needed is a polite way of voicing opposition to a therapeutic, non-toxic, non-addictive medical alternative to big-pharma's synthetic, toxic and addictive drugs.
The Drug Enforcement Agency's Administrative Law Judge, Francis Young, concluded in 1988 that cannabis was "one of the safest therapeutic substances known to man."
With that in mind, the residents of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the members of the House and Senate of Pennsylvania, should ask Mr. Shapiro and the PAMED how many deaths occurred in 2015 from medicinal cannabis in the United States of America, in comparison to how many deaths resulted from doctor-prescribed opioids in Pennsylvania alone.
A study accepted for publication in May of 2014 by JAMA Internal Medicine found that medical cannabis laws are associated with significantly lower state-level opioid overdose mortality rates. In the 23 U.S. states where medical cannabis has been legalized, deaths from opioid overdoses have decreased by almost 25 percent.
In regards to deaths from cannabis, renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht appeared before the House of Representatives in 2010 and was quoted as saying:
"For the past 48 years I have been working as a private forensic pathologist, hospital pathologist, government pathologist and medical-legal forensic scientific consultant for attorneys and organizations throughout the country doing autopsies including some in foreign countries. I myself have done about 17,000 autopsies in these 53 years going back to '57. And I have reviewed, supervised or signed off on about 36,000 additional autopsies. As I sit here before you, sir, I have never signed out a case of death due to acute marijuana or acute cannabinoid toxicity, not one. Nor have I seen in the 36,000 other cases such a diagnosis as the cause of death."
The Pennsylvania Medical Cannabis Society encourages members of the House of Representatives to vote in support of SB 3 when it is brought up for consideration, and to question whose interests Scott Shapiro and the PA Medical Society have in mind, big-pharma's, or the suffering residents of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Correcting Record On Medical Marijuana
Author: Sven Hosford
Contact: YDR
Photo Credit: UrosPoteko
Website: YDR
