At Sherbrooke University Hospital today in Quebec, doctors, dentists and pharmacists unanimously approved the right of patients to use medical marijuana in their rooms. Here’s a link to the CBC story.
The decision arose out of a request of a patient suffering from stage 4 liver cancer (now deceased) to be allowed to use cannabis in his room. He didn’t actually smoke it, but used a vaporizer, which pretty much eliminates all the potentially harmful toxins. Other patients find relief with edibles, ointments and tinctures that don’t impact on other patients or staff in any way.
I’ve spoken with people in the medical cannabis community in Regina and they say they’ve encountered obstacles in the past when they’ve tried to deliver medication to people licensed by Health Canada to use medical cannabis when they’re hospitalized.
It’s a smart decision by the medical professionals at Sherbrooke, and it needs to be done at hospitals across the country.
Meanwhile, in the world of Big Pharma, opiate overdose deaths are on the rise in Canada. And most of the increase is being attributed to prescription drug abuse. People go in for surgery, or maybe wrench their back a bit, so they get prescribed an opiate such as oxycontin to control the pain.
Opiates are drugs like heroin and morphine, and they’re hugely addictive. If you check out the above link you’ll learn that Canadians are the second largest users of opiates in the world behind Americans and that opiate overdoses are a growing cause of death in Canada.
