BAD MEDICINE

Both Democrats and Republicans in Texas have a plank in their party platforms that would allow Texas doctors to determine the appropriate use of cannabis to certified patients

BarkGrowlBite
July 9, 2018

In California, doctors prescribe pot for almost any imagined ailment – headaches, backaches, stomach aches, alopecia, ingrown toenails, hemorrhoids, erectile dysfunction, anxiety, depression, nightmares, etc., etc. Marijuana prescriptions have been a cash cow for California doctors.

Now both Democrats and Republicans in Texas have a plank in their party platforms that would allow Texas doctors to determine the appropriate use of cannabis to certified patients. That’s bad medicine!

Pot has been touted for the treatment of epilepsy, glaucoma, pain, nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients, MS muscle contractions, sleep disorders and Tourette’s symptoms. But reputable scientific studies have shown that this is not true. Yet doctors choose to believe otherwise because it keeps the cash register ringing.

Furthermore, a 20 year study by a team led by Professor Wayne Hall, a drug adviser to the World Health Organization, found cannabis is highly addictive, causes mental health problems, doubles the risk of developing psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia and opens the door to hard drugs.

The situation with doctors prescribing medical marijuana in California got so bad that it amounted to a de facto legalization of Marijuana for recreational use. Now that pot has been legalized for recreational use in the state, that cash cow for doctors will shrink considerably. Why bother to get and pay for a pot scrip now?

The legalization of medical marijuana in California was a designed step for the legalization of recreational pot. And so it will be in Texas if we allow doctors to prescribe pot for whatever alleged ailment they choose.

So, do we really want to allow Texas doctors to determine the appropriate use of cannabis to certified patients? For those of us who are opposed to the legalization of marijuana for recreational use, the answer is a big no!

By the way, I am not opposed to the use of cannabis in medicine. Certain extracts of cannabis which do not cause a high have been shown to have curative results in some cases. If FDA approved extracts were to be prescribed instead of smokable pot, that’s fine with me.