{"id":5073,"date":"2015-11-25T01:14:40","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T01:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=3974"},"modified":"2015-11-25T01:14:40","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T01:14:40","slug":"canada-citys-first-medical-dispensary-a-major-step-forward-in-pain-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/canada-citys-first-medical-dispensary-a-major-step-forward-in-pain-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada: City\u2019s First Medical Dispensary A Major Step Forward In Pain Treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/canada-citys-first-medical-dispensary-a-major-step-forward-in-pain-treatment\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Ottawa now has its first medical marijuana dispensary.<\/p>\n<p>Health Canada still considers these businesses &#8220;illegal&#8221;, but as a pain physician I think it is time for a change in thinking, and policy.<\/p>\n<p>Our nation&#8217;s capital needs to catch up with more progressive cities like Vancouver and Toronto, and realize that medical marijuana offers a much-needed opportunity for relief to its citizens suffering from chronic pain.<\/p>\n<p>Chronic pain is challenging and expensive to treat; it affects one in five adult Canadians &#8211; and as many as 65 per cent of the elderly &#8211; and costs our country $60 billion a year.<\/p>\n<p>Canadians are currently the second highest per capita users of opioid analgesic medicines in the world. Yet opioids, and all other treatments combined, only reduce patients&#8217; pain by an average of 30 per cent while causing side effects in up to 80 per cent of patients.<\/p>\n<p>In view of the lack of progress we&#8217;ve made in managing chronic pain, one would think the medical profession would leap on any new treatments that could offer relief to their patients.<\/p>\n<p>But despite the fact that scientific evidence shows that marijuana is effective for pain with minimal side effects in most patients, doctors have shown surprising reticence to prescribe it as a treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Many doctors point out, justifiably, that Health Canada has put them in a bind by asking them to assume the burden of prescribing a treatment about which they know too little of the risks.<\/p>\n<p>Some might worry that prescribing will lead to more crime, since chronic pain medications (mostly opioids) are already frequently &#8220;diverted&#8221; into black market sales.<\/p>\n<p>But all too often the refrain I hear from my fellow doctors is that they don&#8217;t want to encourage their patients who want to &#8220;stay home and get high&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>I think it is time to stop worrying, and start prescribing.<\/p>\n<p>To those who are concerned about the safety of medical marijuana, there&#8217;s more scientific evidence backing up its use than you may think.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Pain Society&#8217;s most recent guidelines establish marijuana as an important therapy for chronic pain, noting that there is the &#8220;increasing evidence of efficacy in &#8230;neuropathic pain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This year alone, there were at least four high-quality Canadian studies published on medical marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>To those who worry about crime, I point to the example of Colorado.<\/p>\n<p>After that state legalized marijuana, crime rates fell by as much as 9.5 per cent and traffic fatalities (widely expected to increase with all the &#8220;impaired&#8221; drivers) actually fell by 3 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>So let us see the opening of Ottawa&#8217;s first medical marijuana dispensary as an important step forward, not just for Ottawa, but for chronic pain patients everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>Writing in Scientific American in 1990, Canadian pain researcher Ronald Melzack, PhD, wrote: &#8220;people suffer not because their discomfort is untreatable but because physicians are often reluctant to prescribe (effective treatment.)&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-five years later this statement is unfortunately still accurate &#8211; but no longer needs to be.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/canada-citys-first-medical-dispensary-a-major-step-forward-in-pain-treatment.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>News Moderator: Jacob Redmond <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a><br \/>\nFull Article: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottawasun.com\/2015\/11\/08\/ottawas-first-edical-pot-dispensary-a-major-step-forward-in-pain-treatment\" target=\"_blank\">City&#8217;s First Medical Dispensary A Major Step Forward In Pain Treatment<\/a><br \/>\nAuthor: Dr. Marc Engfield<br \/>\nContact: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottawasun.com\/contact-us\" target=\"_blank\">Contact Page<\/a><br \/>\nPhoto Credit: Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post<br \/>\nWebsite: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottawasun.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ottawa Sun News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ottawa now has its first medical marijuana dispensary.<\/p>\n<p>Health Canada still considers these businesses &#8220;illegal&#8221;, but as a pain physician I think it is time for a change in thinking, and policy.<\/p>\n<p>Our nation&#8217;s capital needs to catch up with more progressive cities like Vancouver and Toronto, and realize that medical marijuana offers a much-needed opportunity for relief to its citizens suffering from chronic pain.<\/p>\n<p>Chronic pain is challenging and expensive to treat; it affects one in five adult Canadians &#8211; and as many as 65 per cent of the elderly &#8211; and costs our country $60 billion a year.<\/p>\n<p>Canadians are currently the second highest per capita users of opioid analgesic medicines in the world. Yet opioids, and all other treatments combined, only reduce patients&#8217; pain by an average of 30 per cent while causing side effects in up to 80 per cent of patients.<\/p>\n<p>In view of the lack of progress we&#8217;ve made in managing chronic pain, one would think the medical profession would leap on any new treatments that could offer relief to their patients.<\/p>\n<p>But despite the fact that scientific evidence shows that marijuana is effective for pain with minimal side effects in most patients, doctors have shown surprising reticence to prescribe it as a treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Many doctors point out, justifiably, that Health Canada has put them in a bind by asking them to assume the burden of prescribing a treatment about which they know too little of the risks.<\/p>\n<p>Some might worry that prescribing will lead to more crime, since chronic pain medications (mostly opioids) are already frequently &#8220;diverted&#8221; into black market sales.<\/p>\n<p>But all too often the refrain I hear from my fellow doctors is that they don&#8217;t want to encourage their patients who want to &#8220;stay home and get high&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>I think it is time to stop worrying, and start prescribing.<\/p>\n<p>To those who are concerned about the safety of medical marijuana, there&#8217;s more scientific evidence backing up its use than you may think.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Pain Society&#8217;s most recent guidelines establish marijuana as an important therapy for chronic pain, noting that there is the &#8220;increasing evidence of efficacy in &#8230;neuropathic pain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This year alone, there were at least four high-quality Canadian studies published on medical marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>To those who worry about crime, I point to the example of Colorado.<\/p>\n<p>After that state legalized marijuana, crime rates fell by as much as 9.5 per cent and traffic fatalities (widely expected to increase with all the &#8220;impaired&#8221; drivers) actually fell by 3 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>So let us see the opening of Ottawa&#8217;s first medical marijuana dispensary as an important step forward, not just for Ottawa, but for chronic pain patients everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>Writing in Scientific American in 1990, Canadian pain researcher Ronald Melzack, PhD, wrote: &#8220;people suffer not because their discomfort is untreatable but because physicians are often reluctant to prescribe (effective treatment.)&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-five years later this statement is unfortunately still accurate &#8211; but no longer needs to be.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/canada-citys-first-medical-dispensary-a-major-step-forward-in-pain-treatment.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>News Moderator: Jacob Redmond <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a><br \/>\nFull Article: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottawasun.com\/2015\/11\/08\/ottawas-first-edical-pot-dispensary-a-major-step-forward-in-pain-treatment\" target=\"_blank\">City&#8217;s First Medical Dispensary A Major Step Forward In Pain Treatment<\/a><br \/>\nAuthor: Dr. Marc Engfield<br \/>\nContact: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottawasun.com\/contact-us\" target=\"_blank\">Contact Page<\/a><br \/>\nPhoto Credit: Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post<br \/>\nWebsite: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottawasun.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ottawa Sun News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1616,9,1,3],"tags":[4184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}