The Risk Research
Assessment Program
A Proposal for Peace!
The Canadian Medical Association and the Provincial Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons have
finally succeeded in sticking their heads all the way up where the sun doesn’t
shine.
The Doctors have now taken the initiative and in return for
their signature want total control of the Doctor/ Patient relationship. They
accompany this with an exorbitant ever escalating scale of fees in the hundreds
of dollars. We have a profession that, after admitting that they don’t know
shit from shinola about any of the aspects of Medicinal Cannabis use or
treatment, are demanding complete control of a patients treatment under threat
of terminating their prescription for disobedience.
That is not going to fly. There is no way that a patient who
has spent years developing a mode of treatment that suits his complaint is
going to surrender control over his treatment and obey a dumb-fucker on a learning curve
from nowhere.
What is most surprising to me is that I advised them to take
the exact opposite approach and give the patient control of his treatment
and teach the doctor out of his dumb-fucker state. I made this in the
form of a proposal for a joint research project to Dr. Louis Francescutti after his appointment to the CMA Presidency. I was ignored as is standard practice for the CMA.
Since then I have watched the profession fester
with resentment and they are now in an impossible situation making unreasonable
demands that cannot be met because they have destroyed all confidence in their
role as a trustworthy source of help.
I may be a fool or simply overly optimistic but
I believe that there is a way to break the current impasse if only the
profession will listen and understand that they need to show some humanity and
understanding and above all negotiate a middle ground to establish a workable
Doctor/Patient relationship in Cannabis Treatment and establish its benefit on
a factual basis.
So where does that
leave us now?
In a
position where we can ignore Government influence and resolve the differences
in goals of Doctors and Patients by partnering to a new instructional model and
eliminating the shortage of information that so plagues Doctors in the
assumption of the risk of treatment. To this end I now repeat the proposal I
made the CMA to establish a joint Program to collect the missing information.
The
Risk Research Assessment Program
We have two
groups interested in the Medical aspect of the problem but at extreme ends of
the treatment scale. The CMA wants good information regarding all aspects of
Cannabis therapy and the Potential Patient population has all the answers.
There is no communication between the two and unless that gap is eliminated
there will never be a solution found.
The
complexity of the problem becomes even more convoluted when the number of
variables to be considered is magnified a thousand times. A large number of the
patients most concerned are those who over the course of years have devised a
personal treatment that works for them. They have selected hybrids as a source
crop, and complex processing procedures to make the medications they use to
successfully alleviate their symptoms. As a collective they possess all the
knowledge the CMA needs and they need the CMA for a signature to purchase and
possess their raw materials.
I am no
doctor but I am a damned good statistician, a superb analyst and I’ve got
excellent common sense. Combine that with humility that is exceeded only by my
good looks and you wind up with brilliance or a fool. I believe that there is a
way to break this impasse and I am now proposing it to you for your judgment of
its merit. It will need polishing but it could work but only if the CMA assumes
its proper role as a leader of a profession devoted to the welfare of patients.
At the moment they are paralyzed by an obsession with risks and are blockading
effective treatment and that must stop.
The risks
they fear can neither be qualified nor quantified: What are the risks and how
serious are they? They don’t know what they fear and my proposal is that they
start doing some Research to find out what the Bogeyman is. The CMA is the only
one who can! They have mistakenly interpreted the MMPR as requiring them to
authorize the use of marijuana as a medical treatment. It does no such thing.
The
responsibility of the physician under the MMPR limited to the same declaration
required by the MMAR. Whatever steps taken to establish grounds for a
signature, all the attending Physician is doing is certifying an applicant has
symptoms of a disease that requires further treatment. There neither is any
recommendation as to what that treatment shall be, nor is it a prescription for
medication. It merely establishes the right to purchase and possess as much
cannabis as required for the patient’s medical needs. The origin of the
Cannabis purchased, legal or illegal, is none of the physician’s concern nor is
the quantity purchased. All his signature accomplishes is giving the Patient
immunity from arrest and prosecution for possessing his medication: If
he elects to buy pot instead of a stereo.
Let’s Make
A Deal and use our Combined strength against Harper for leverage
The one
thing that is certain is that Stephen Harper wants his Commercialization of
Marijuana to succeed. A continuing blockade to Customers by Doctors is not to
be desired when the doors to his Marihuana Monopoly scheme open for business.
The CMA should have a really good look at the huge pile of money he’s talking
about. A billion and a half?
Gee? I
wonder what our Fearless Leader would pay for Doctors to wholeheartedly agree
to support his program in the interests of speeding up the supply transfer to
Licensed Growers and no shortages to patients.
Minimum
10% Max? plus immunity from risk. Not too much to ask:
This
is risky business so the CMA should request financing to start a Research
Program to assess that risk. There is a risk of a completely unknown
probability and any Doctor participating as a researcher and dealing within the
program must be exempted with no liability that for outcome under both Criminal
or Civil jurisdictions.
The Program
would allow any licensed physician to participate as a researcher subject to
guidance regarding the Doctor/Patient relationship that will be established per
protocol.
This is a simple
trade. Any doctor feeling qualified to do so can establish a legally binding
relationship with a Patient that exchanges
access to
cannabis for complete disclosure of the patient’s treatment regimen and
detailed follow ups to assess progress.
The CMA
wants data related to both the short and long term use of marijuana regardless
of method of use or product used and dosage. There is none. Gather some! Get
off your ass and gather some
Patients
want maintenance of the level of medication they are currently using for relief
of their particular symptoms preferably in the same form or better if found.
Provide
Create a
research project to gather the data you want with a trade.
The Doctor
trades his approval for a patient’s medication requirement because he is
participating in research, supplying an experimental drug and recording the
treatment progress in order to assess its effects. Because it is an assessment
of risk there must be no responsibility or liability for an unexpected bad
outcome. Ensure that factor with Health Canada.
The Doctor
must be in control of the relationship and its procedural requirements but the
patient retains control over what is done with the marijuana after purchase.
The patient trades detailed access to his treatment regimen and medical
progress and any changes made for the right to obtain or create his own
medication, He agrees to periodic reports and/or assessments to be determined.
At this point there are 30,000+ potential research subjects waiting for the
opportunity to share their knowledge for weed. All they need to know is that
some doctor is going to look after their interests instead of their own and the
flood gates will open.
As a
statistician I am astounded by the immense pool of information about cannabis
medical utility that can be extracted from 30000 users and the speed that it
can be now be analyzed and understood.
With an
intelligent first examination by the doctor and a structured interview, his
physical symptomology and its severity is known, and a baseline established
that can be expanded to include:
1. A complete history of the patient’s
use and treatment mode
2. A marijuana sample to be used for
genetic and pharmacological analysis
3. A sample of any creams, oils, teas,
or any product ingested
4. An identification of the method of
use
If all
30000 of the growers responded for just that first interview you could pull
complete knowledge about every hybrid plant’s genetics and its potential as a
producer of whatever cannabinoids are the effectors in any product used. You now
have an established baseline: with a reasonable repeat assessment and interview
schedule and the help of the patient you can measure whatever is changed in the
treatment regimen and the THC and CBD composition in whatever product they are
using and a verbal follow up on physical benefits.
One other
point that should be noted by the CMA re their role in the matter: opposing is
simply inflicting aggravation on patients who already have enough to worry
about with the loss of personal and designated growth. Your signatures are of
diddly shit importance to any potential grower who is in the position of having
to grow his own because he cannot afford purchase it at current price levels.
They are doomed to grow criminally under threat of arrest by the Cops and
ruination from misguided building inspectors if their medication source is
discovered.
That is a
sourdough ending to what I think is a reasonable path to reconciliation and the
restoration of a Doctor/Patient relation based on respect and trust. That is a
far better outcome than a continuation of the current Doctor/Patient
relationship based on lies, paranoia, fear and contempt. It can’t get any worse
for the CMA image as seen by the Medical Marijuana Patient Community: They’re
an arrogant collection of unsympathetic liars who don’t give a damn about their
patient pool. These ethical cretins are primarily interested in their own
professional and financial security, not in our patient welfare. The CMA does
not represent doctors: It is simply a lobbyist representing the commercial
interests of a ridiculously intertwined snarl of corporations owned by Doctors
that owns and controls the Canadian Medical System.
Nasty and
unwelcome as this professional image has become, it’s completely warranted by
the twelve years of obstinacy, opposition and misinformation accorded Medical
Marijuana by the CMA that prompted me to write this.
Thanks for
your interest
Blaine
Barrett
