Mr. Asshole Himself
Dr. Louis Hugo
Francescutti
I got my
first impression of Dr. Francescutti from an article in the Vancouver Sun in 2011 when he was President
of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.
I was
extremely impressed by his vision and grateful that he was trying to impress
his understanding on the medical community.
Mistake #1- I Was Impressed!
When I saw
his acceptance speech outlining his priorities as the new President of the
Canadian Medical Association in 2013. I was disappointed he made no mention of the
blockade of signatures and the Medical Marijuana problem and a little
disappointed that his message to the Association membership concerned only the
image of a Physician and how to restore it. Unfortunately it was self-image of a
Physician as seen by the profession.
Mistake #2- I Let That Slide By!
There was
no recognition in his speech that the public image of the Association was that
of a bunch of stubborn bastards refusing to accept the reality of marijuana
benefits. Over the life of the MMAR the CMA has been nothing but a constant
source of criticism and objections to any suggestion of benefits and their role
in the Program. They effectively killed the Program with repetition of a
platform of lies and distortions that was formulated at the inception of the
Program.
There were
4 main components to that platform
1. no acceptable scientific evidence of
any medical benefit.
2. The horrible unknown risks of its
long term use as a medication
3. being asked to “prescribe” a Gateway
drug leading to addiction
4. denial of 5000 years testimonial
evidence of benefits
Nevertheless
I attempted to contact him three times to attempt to bridge the gap between
patients and doctors and even sent him a reasonable solution with a plan for a Risk
Research program between Physicians and Patients involving the sharing of
information and guidance from each side see:
I ran
through my proposal again and it still could work: all it needs is for
Francescutti to get off his high horse and listen to reason.
He Opened My Eyes With His Mouth
Then I ran
across his interview by the Huffington Post and I was stunned by his
presentation and his complete ignorance or understanding of the benefits of
marijuana. This was a complete reversal of the man I thought he was and I began
to research him to find out just what was going on. What I found out is not of my
liking nor do I think of yours.
So. Who is He?
He’s a
complete mystery to me. All the material regarding him that I researched had
nothing but praise for his capacity as an expert beyond belief in a range of
subjects that is amazing. I looked at his education and career history and
nowhere did he spend enough time training in any field to absorb the amount of
knowledge attributed to him. WTF? How did he get that reputation s I read it
completely and was surprised to find that it is his personal website by
finding his personal invitations to: “e-mail me”: lou@drlou.ca,
“contact my office”:
780-492-5775 and to participate in an
“audience survey” (link) and let me know what you thought of my presentation!
The website
exposes a significant expenditure for a competent staff because it is obviously
constructed by professional web experts and written by professional
propagandists and neither comes cheap!
Combine
that with his extensive travel costs and the amount is not in a General Practitioners
budget? Where’s he get it?
Turns out
he’s a millionaire! How do I know that? From his website and how his staff
describes how he lives:
“Lou spends every spare minute with his family. An
amateur stone mason and timber framer, Lou's acreage, home to many interesting
projects, is enough to keep any person busy full-time, but he manages. An
authentic Italian pizza oven, a get-away log cabin, a hockey rink, a pond, a
maze of trails, and an authentic jail house, Lou's personal life is as
interesting and intriguing as his professional endeavors.”
That Lou
has enough time at home to maintain a palace like that: between his world
travels, lectures, teaching and playing doctor at two Edmonton locations: is pure bullshit.
So is the
rest of his website; It’s a non-stop stream of 4 pages of nothing but
exaggeration of his excellence at everything, with carefully selected use of flowery
language that presents him as a model to follow.
I am not
going to say more about the site but will let you make your own judgement of
its portrayal of the man. To save you that time, the items in the following
list are simply repeated phrases and attributes as used to describe him:
Forgive the weird indenting, I can’t get rid of it??
1. President of the Canadian Medical
Association,
2. Past-President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada,
3. one of Canada's leading medical visionaries
4. an emergency room physician,
5. an educator,
6. program developer
7. speaks to the masses, connecting
with individuals
8. regarded internationally for his corporate
mentorship sessions and safety culture seminars
9. visionary, educator, speaker, and
doctor
10.
Emergency
Medical Technician in Canada's Arctic,
11.
MD
and PhD at the University of Alberta.
12.
founded
the Injury Awareness and Prevention Centre
13.
Johns
Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore, Master of Public
Health degree and a Preventive Medicine Residency
14.
Professor
in the School of Public Health
15.
Adjunct
in the Department of Emergency Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine and
Dentistry at the University of Alberta,
16.
Works
as an emergency physician in the Emergency Departments of the Royal Alexandra Hospital and the Northeast Community Health
Centre in Edmonton.
17.
Alberta
Coalition for Cellphone-Free Driving, for example, which Lou founded in 2005
18.
promotes
safety culture and corporate mentorship
19.
delivering
his provocative and compelling message to everyone from telephone and power
workers to oilfield laborers and engineering professionals
20.
speaking
to small and large groups of individuals, new and mature organizations and
corporations, students, and government agencies--not to mention international
authorities and organizations.
21.
Offering
a bold and ultra-real-world perspective on topics such as safety culture,
substance abuse, injury, injury prevention, fatigue, mental illness,
communications and health promotion,
22.
Everyone
benefits from hearing Lou's message
23.
His
lectures are a recurring event at many educational institutions, including Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton,
24.
Dr.
Francescutti is internationally regarded as a medical expert and
visionary.
25.
His
years of mentorship and inspirational speaking put him in high demand for
international consulting, mentorship, and speaking engagements from
Norway to New Zealand, and Sweden to the United States,
26.
Dr.
Francescutti is one of Canada's most revered medical figures,
being acknowledged around the world for his unique approach to injury control
and prevention.
One other
thing that gives me doubts about Dr. Francescutti is the fact that for all his
years in training and in academia he has not published one paper worthy enough
to declare in the sites paean of his accomplishments. There is no paper trail
showing that he actually learned anything worth sharing to his fellows in
academia. The other big question is “Where did all that money to create a
Country estate worthy of Royalty come from?”. You don’t earn it from the
practice of Medicine as a Professor on tenure with part time employment as an
Emergency Room doctor in an Edmonton hospital. I conclude it had to come
from his talent as a bullshit artist with speaker fees and a genius for self
promotion almost as good as Donald Trump.
To bring
this indictment to an end I have concluded that at this time he is Medical
Marijuana’s chief enemy and a traitor to his Oath to Do No Harm. I have no idea
how to counter his influence but we can all take comfort that he has a limited
time on his seat as leader of the “Parliament of Medicine” as he describes the
Association. He leads it with the same arrogance and lies as Harper in his
imitation of dictatorial governance in Ottawa. His term as President is only two
years and over half of that is already history. All of us can look forward to
his disappearance in 2015 along with Harper. It can’t come soon enough.
In the
interim, since the good Doctor ha requested feedback, his request should be
granted! I suggest that if anyone disagrees with his asshole position on the
medicinal benefits of marijuana they tell him so by clicking on the e-mail link
he thoughtfully provided, lou@drlou.ca, participate
in his “audience survey” and let him know what you thought of his
presentation!”
That is how I sum up Dr. Louis Hugo
Francescutti and my conclusion: My labelling him an “Asshole” is perfectly
justified:
Arrogance + Ignorance + Bullshit = Asshole
Proof Positive!
Go figure:
Blaine Barrett
