The KKK of Canadian Medicine

The President of the CMA

Is

The Grand Wizard of the White Brotherhood

He changes to Green for the OR

 

My regular readers wil have noticed that a great deal of my recent focus has been on Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti, the current President of the Canadian Medical Association. I checked him out when I first noticed  him and he seemed a very brilliant and compassionate man. I watched his acceptance speech after his appointment as President of the CMA last spring and I was disappointed with the focus of his Presidency enhancing the image of a Doctor: not in the eyes of the public but as seen by the Profession: a polishing of their self image?

 

I next saw him last month as he presented himself at an interview in the Huffington Post. The article was to find out  the course he was advocating to his membership at the CMA, in his role as President, concerning the crisis in Medical Marijuana. I was stunned by his presentation as an ignorant buffoon with stupid, short, off the cuff answers to questions that deserved a professional response. His answers suited his presentation as an ignorant Asshole and I named him one here in my blog. His answers can be summed up in one sentence: His advice to his membership:

“Don’t sign an application for Cannabis!

Anyone who claims Marijuana has any Medical benefit is a liar!”

 I could not understand why he turned his coat until:

1.    I ran across a Stats Canada report on Canadian Mortality related to the medical condition requiring attention that caused the death.

2.    I read another column that set the Cost of Canadian Medical Care at an estimated $212 Billion; set the average income of Canadian Physicians at $250K with a range from $200K-307

3.    I read another column that moaned that the debt burden of graduates from Canadian Medical school was excessive and accounted for years of time delay and low physicians salaries to reach a level with any significant profit. Poor guys!

It’s all bullshit.

Dr. Francescutti is a brilliant man with a depth of knowledge that is truly amazing. I read several of his replies to questions at a meeting of the Health Committee and several other addresses to various groups. My conclusion is that Dr. Francescutti probably knows more about the benefits of Cannabis therapy than any one of us reading this. A man as brilliant and curious as he is does not sit in a position of ignorance in the middle of a propoganda war for 12 years. There  has been an exponential rise in testimonial evidence that marijuana has many benefits. There has also been an exponential rise in scientific studies by disciplines outside medicine all over the world he discounts because they do not meet the statistical support of a Big Pharma drug. He refuses to accept that it is not a drug but an herb with no known risks from its use.

 

It’s an act! Dr. Lou is fully aware that if the public see him in his suit and being the expert speaker he is they will know he is intentionally lying and not believe anything he says. If his public image is that of a Harley riding wanna be redneck who fires off answers without thinking his audience will think he’s a short term idiot that somehow got elected and he’ll be gone in less than a year. They might even forgive the membership a pass for simply being cowards afraid of his punitive side. It’s a simple delay tactic and that is all he and the CMA simply want: a time extension of its dismissal of Cannabis as a Cure because the potential loss of business.

Both he and the rest of the AMA are fully aware that Cannabis Can Cure Cancer. The last thing the medical profession wants is a cure for any condition requiring repeat medical care. It bulldozes their bottom line.

Cannabis Cures Cancer

The Stats Canada report on Mortality showed me that 40% of the entire cost of the Canadian Medical System was due to one single cause - Cancer. That is a huge chunk of money but how much is that?

The next column identified that the cost of the entire Medical System was $212 Billion and 40% amounted to $84 Billion for Cancer. That is a terrible financial monster the Medical Profession has become.

Just how terrible is almost unimaginable. The 84 billion is the cost to the state of all the doctors rendered services, in effect their salaries, and a job loss of 40% of the profession is not to be ignored. Already these articles are pointing out how hard it is to get by on their salaries of an average of about $250,000 with a maximum of $307,000. They are also moaning about how hard it is for Medical Graduates to repay huge student loans to cover their education on a salary range for residents of only $50,000-$80,000.

 

I will be commenting on these in a later post but please understand that the 84 billion for salaries is the tip of the iceberg. What about the loss of 40% to the mountain of investments they own in their interlocked snarl of Doctor Incorporated Businesses that owns almost all of the physical medical system of supply and demand and depends on repeat patient visits and care needs as its base of earnings.

How big are those investments? HUGE!! Go to: Cannabis Cures Cancer at

http://goan-smee.blogspot.ca/2013/12/cannabis-cures-cancer.html

More to follow:

Blaine Barrett

TheSmeeGoanGuy

 

The New Health Canada/CMA Conspiracy

Dr. Francescutti is No Asshole

He’s Just a Lousy Actor Mimicking One

EQUAL STUPIDITY ON BOTH SIDES

In her most recent announcement of changes to the MMRP Health Minister Rona Ambrose brilliantly and effectively drove a stake into the heart of all Medical Marijuana patients and pending applicants. She is simply used a little increase in administrative requirements and costs as a deterrent to any doctor considering treating a patient. That minor increase in costs is the tipping point because besides turning treatment and appointments of a patient into cost to the doctor, it also creates fear of a monitoring process by third parties that could lead to inspection by their colleges and damage to their practice.

Francescutti clapped his approval at the increased invasion of privacy because it stops the treatment of Cannabis patients by doctors. Dr. Francescutti and the CMA are fully aware that any “Cure” for a medical condition requiring treatment means the loss of a customer and all future profits. If cannabis does cure cancer and is proven to do so then the economic damage to the Canadian Medical System will be catastrophic. No-one seems to realize that a cure for cancer is direct threat to 40% of the jobs in the system. I have known that the impact of a cure would damage the medical care system but I never realized the size of the damage.

I found out that the entire cost of Canadian medical treatment last year is fairly accurately estimated to be about $212,000,000,000 (that’s Billion). WOW! Then I stumbled across a Stats Canada report on Mortality rates that assigned a percentage to about ten categories of the causes that created that great big number. The mind blowing revelation that 40% or $84 Billion of the cost of Canadian medical care is due to one single disease-CANCER!

If no-one else in the health system is aware of the danger of job reduction; Dr. Francescutti and his 75,000 CMA members certainly are. I had Dr. Francescutti pegged as an asshole because of presentation in an interview, but he’s not. He’s a brilliant man and he’s acting a part to play his public image. More on that in a follow-up post.

The reality for all of us who want access to Medical Marijuana is that there is no way to get it without great difficulty and expense and we are forced back into breaking the law again. We are denied access because any doctor stupid enough to sign for a patient is forced to comply with extremely complex procedural interview and examination instructions from his College; combined with excessive reporting of his compliance after every visit; plus now a third party evaluation of his compliance with the procedures; having any deviation being reported back to the College; and subject to disciplinary action. Finding a doctor was difficult before Rona’s announcement but now is almost impossible.

In simple terms: treatment of a marijuana Patient means a doctor must spend excess time for both interview and examination with no additional compensation for the lost time: then you have to spend even more time writing reports of your compliance with policy with no compensation for your lost time: Then you have to submit your reports for a microscopic examination for errors by a bunch of bean counters who justify their employment by finding them. They don’t trust you even then and the LP your patient buys his medication has to report every client he has and complete details of their purchase history to make certain they haven’t omitted to report that they were writing 5 gram prescriptions instead of the maximum 3 allowed. Only a fool or a martyr is going to accept a patient and sign a prescription to allow him to purchase his meds. The consequences are all negative and in the CMA’s best interests.

In the meantime it is business as usual and the longer the “Cure” is denied the members have secure employment. The Supreme Court will rule it NFG again but until Rona and Louis are gone we are all fucked.

Quotes:

Rona Ambrose
Minister of Health

“We have consulted with healthcare licensing bodies who expressed a need for the data on how doctors and nurses are authorizing marijuana to their patients and in which quantities. The proposed regulatory amendments will further strengthen public health and safety by ensuring appropriate oversight and monitoring.”

???

As if there wasn’t enough already, she guarantee access to spyware in a doctor’s office. That’s Big Brother looking over your shoulder, Doc.:Keep your nose clean.

<><><><><><><><>

Dr. Trevor Theman
President: Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada

"The Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada strongly supports the proposed amendments that will enable its Members to exercise their duty in the best interest of the public. Medical regulatory authorities require access to this information so they can hold physicians accountable to a high standard of care when they choose to authorize patient access to marijuana for medical purposes."

???

Of course Dr. Theman strongly supports this because it’s a guarantee of work for his crew of fact checkers looking for piddley shit to report and look useful; just a wee bit of bias. It ignores the fact that there is no set standard of care for Cannabis treatment in Canada because the Medical Community who will create the standards doesn’t know shit from shinola when it comes to treatment much less dosage.

I will end this now but a follow up post will follow to examine in detail just what motivates a brilliant speaker and master of language like Francescutti try to appear like a stupid fool who can’t put more than two or three grunts together to answer a question an interview with a display of hostility and disbelief.

Until then

Blaine Barrett

TheSmeeGoanGuy

Who is this Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti?

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.

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2011/02/01/doctors-too-self-interested-to-put-patients-first-royal-

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:

http://goan-smee.blogspot.ca/2014/04/the-risk-research-assessment-program.html

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

TheSmeeGoanGuy

What was I thinking?

What was I thinking?

Damn good question!

It made me do a whole lot more!

The day after I posted I HATE TWO-FACED POLITICIANS (which follows this one), I received a question from a Reader that threw me. A friend Eric requested I answer a question from Jodie. She had asked him a question about my post about M.P. Jean Crowder and the odor crisis in Shawinigan Falls. I agreed to answer before I saw it.

This reader, whoever she is, is one smart girl because she thinks like me! She read my post and it didn’t gel with her perspective of the situation and she was questioning MY logic and reasoning! In short her question boiled down to:

“Are you nuts?”

I wasn’t sure, so I read my post as if I had not written it

Following find her question and my attempt to defend myself:

Jodie: 

I’m not sure I understand the writer's problem with the MPs statement. Nowhere does she state that she doesn't support medical marijuana. The NDP were the first party to support, and have consistently for years. What she does say is that if somebody is given a license to grow for the government, they still have to obey local bylaws. That is just common sense. As for a more commercial model of grow-ops, she says that is coming.... she doesn't say that she supports that model.
Personally, I don't like either model. People should be allowed to have a couple of plants for personal use, medical or recreational.

To answer your question Jodie: I was prompted to write the post because it’s a one-sided half picture of the problem being reported. It’s a collaboration of the two main sources of misinformation that have helped create the negative impression that the public has regarding Medical Marijuana. The “Press” who ignore critical little details in their attempt to report exaggeration as the “Truth” and Politicians who ignore obvious truths in their propagandizing of whatever position they hold this week. Both these sources speak with perceived authority from a position of respect and readers deserve a more balanced presentation of fact.

In this instance the reporter did a lousy job of reporting with information probably received via e-mail or phone and no first hand information at all. Readers might have been interested in who this Skunkman is and what he had to say in his own defense? How many plants? He’s a dedicated grower: How many patients is he supplying? Just how sick are they? What terrible diseases? What are they allowed as a dose. How bad was the smell? 

She has no first hand knowledge to judge whether the complaint is justified, or a fiction concocted by ignorant neighbors to eliminate the criminal element and all the safety hazards that just moved in next door?

I don’t think the reporter has any intention of following up on this outrage to let her public know the result when it happens, do you? I didn’t like chewing out another reporter but if she gets another shot at anything to do with Medical Marijuana she will report it with a lot more attention to detail and accuracy than she did here. That lack of detail may well apply to her reporting of Ms. Crowder’s remarks that made up the second half of her composition so I allow more leeway regarding her statements.

I didn’t want to mention Ms. Crowder, but what she was reported as saying was totally misleading. She should not have commented about the personal growth issue because she obviously has no idea how complex this subject is. 

To begin the article she is reported as almost recommending that Municipalities enact bylaws to control the problem of personal growth. She is totally unaware that by doing so she is encouraging them to follow the example of Surrey who has enacted a bylaw so prohibitive to personal growth it is virtually impossible to meet compliance requirements much less the $5000 initial fee application. 

The basis for the ridiculous operating requirements of the MMRP is found in the Surrey bylaw. Both are designed with a Complexity requiring the expenditure of a fortune for a ridiculously Ultra High Tech Security System: a multiplicity of unnecessary Quality Control tests and Production methods. 

She should have kept her mouth shut but her performance was very illustrative of the stereotypical performance of nearly every politician confronted with a question about something they know very little about. Bafflegab!

Unfortunately for Ms. Crowder these are her constituents and she musr reassure them and let them know she has their best interests at heart. She announces there will be an end to the problem as soon as the commercializing of supply planned by the Harperites will bring an end to this terrible offensive odor activity. 

I got the impression she is pleased the Cons are going to end her problem and completely ignorant of the consequences on Medical Marijuana. If everyone just holds their nose till next spring, all you’ll smell is flowers. There is no sign of awareness that this will be disastrous on the lives of the Patients dependant on their grower for their medication. She’s condemning them to pain and puke and is completely unaware of reality.

We now are near the conclusion of the article and Ms. Crowder made me laugh with her presentation of false power and influence on the Con Government Ministry of Health! LOLOLOL!!!

Jodie, in conclusion there is no way the Ms. Crowder will be able to gain attention for a constituent complaint unless it is a life or death matter. HC ignores the Supreme Court for crying out loud: do you think for a moment they will pay attention to a minor backbencher in an Opposition party for a complaint as serious as a smell? LOL again!

Jodie: I don’t know if I answered your question to your satisfaction but that is my attempt and I’m out of steam. If you would like to reply for any further questions please reply to my E-mail. That’s private and my embarrassment is not meant to be visible! thesmeegoanguy@gmail.ca

Once again thanks for the question. I need a good kick once in a while and you’re the first reader who paid enough attention to notice and come through with the necessary attitude adjustment. Ouch!

With deep regards

Blaine

TheSmeeGoanGuy