Cannabis 'should Be Assessed'

Cannabis should be assessed for its benefits and risks like any potential medicine, says Marlborough's medical officer of drug and alcohol services.

Blenheim GP Rod Bird was commenting in response to a Green Party national survey showing one third of doctors believe they should be able to prescribe cannabis for medical purposes.

The survey of 500 registered doctors, 45 percent of whom responded, showed 10 percent of doctors had patients they felt could benefit from medicinal cannabis, 20 percent had patients they knew used cannabis medicinally and 32 percent would consider prescribing cannabis if it were legal to do so.

Dr Bird said doctors carefully weighed up the benefits and risks of any potential medicine and cannabis should be assessed in the same way.

"The problem is it is caught up in a whole moral issue. The whole debate is distorted by those moralist considerations."
At the moment there was not enough clear evidence on the medicinal advantages of cannabis, he said.

"There have been some studies published and there has been some conflicting evidence. The evidence is not solid but we keep an open mind about it."

Green MP Nandor Tanczos said there was a significant number of chronically ill people forced to go to gang houses to get their medicine "who risk arrest simply for trying to improve the quality of their life".

He said the Government had to realise the consequences of cannabis prohibition and help minimise the dangers those people faced.

Blenheim man Michael Barr used cannabis to ease the chest pain associated with his heart condition until 2001 when police busted him for cultivating cannabis.

He conceded his cannabis use was recreational as well as medicinal, but he would have preferred cannabis prescribed to him in a spray form from his doctor.

"That is what I would like to see. It should be available to those who need it. It relieved the chest pain and it made me more relaxed around the house. Stress is a big factor in heart problems."

Prior to a heart operation in Dunedin two years ago he went to his doctor to ask about the advisability of using cannabis for pain relief.

He said his doctor told him he could not advise him to use cannabis, but could not discourage him either because there was too little information on the benefits and risks.

Green health spokesperson Sue Kedgley questioned the logic of banning the medicinal use of cannabis while permitting the routine use of morphine, a class B drug with serious side effects and a high risk of addiction.

Dr Bird agreed that was a bizarre twist. He said cannabis was not a huge health breakthrough but "I think there is some evidence that it is going to have a place".

Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons has a private member's bill before Parliament to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act to allow the medicinal use of cannabis.

A parliamentary committee, after a three-year investigation into cannabis, in August urged the Government to consider allowing doctors to prescribe it.

At the time, Ms King said she would wait for the results of British trials due later this year before making any decisions.

Her spokesman said the survey did not change that.

United Future's health spokeswoman Judy Turner said the issue was one for scientists and pharmacists, "not politicians and drug aficionados desperate to promote their favourite substance by any means possible".


Pubdate: Fri, 03 Oct 2003
Source: Marlborough Express (New Zealand)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers Limited 2003
Contact: laurab@marlexpress.co.nz
Website: http://www.marlboroughexpress.co.nz/