Opinion - Hallelujah! Canadians agree it's time to legalize marijuana (VIDEO)

Changes to the medical marijuana licensing system were made to prevent exploitation, the government says.

Photograph by: Byn Beck, AFP, Getty Images Files, Vancouver Sun With Files From Sharon Kirkey Postmedia News

A new poll suggests Canada may have reached the tipping point and a 66-per-cent majority favours legalizing marijuana.

Hallelujah! Finally we might get a sensible public policy discussion in this country about what to do about a relatively benign substance that has been demonized and outlawed for a century yet is as readily available in schoolyards as cigarettes.

The prohibition and a 40-year-long "War on Drugs" have led to pot being more widely accessible, taxpayers considerably poorer, gangs richer and thousands upon thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens branded "criminal."

Another 50,000 or so Canadians are busted every year for possession; throw in 20,000 or so traffickers and producers and this so-called war is costing us as much as $400 million annually in law enforcement, court and corrections.

Bearing in mind a million dollars a year buys roughly 12 new cops, 14 teachers or public health nurses, ask yourself: Couldn't all that money be better spent?

The federal Liberal party obviously thinks so - 77 per cent of delegates at the weekend convention voted to legalize the herb, echoing the Senate special committee on illegal drugs (chaired by a Conservative), which 10 years ago urged the government to free the weed. Four decades ago, the LeDain Commission similarly called for an end to the criminal prohibition of cannabis.

Across the country today, more and more people agree.

Conducted Dec. 13 by Toronto-based Forum Research Inc. and released Tuesday, the latest poll of 1,160 respondents 18 or older showed that residents of B.C. were the most likely to support pot-law reform, with 73 per cent wanting change.

Quebec had the lowest support for reforms at 61 per cent.

(The interactive voice-response telephone survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.)

Who's leading the way? Those aged 55 to 64.

Why? Yes, there are a lot of old hippies. But of all the age cohorts, the middle-aged and elderly, the late-boomers are learning faster than most that marijuana may be the Aspirin of the 21st century.

Medicinal marijuana is changing the debate about pot across the continent.

From cancer patients fighting nausea from chemotherapy to those suffering from glaucoma, Crohn's disease and other ailments, pot brings therapeutic relief unavailable from pharmaceutical products.

Its growing and widespread use is erasing old stoner stereotypes and triggering a more grown-up adult conversation about the weed.

And money is driving it - not just the prospect of future tax revenue estimated in the billions, but fortunes are being made right now off medical marijuana.

In some U.S. states with med-pot pro-grams, big box stores have opened selling hydroponic gear, specialized equipment and supplies for growers.

The IRS says one single Oakland marijuana dispensary owes $2.5 million in back taxes. Another generates about $18.5 million annually in sales.

There are 16 states that have medical marijuana programs and in the three west coast states, advocates are readying tax-and-sell or other legalization programs.

Ending the criminal prohibition of marijuana does not mean making it freely available - it means regulating it as we do alcohol and tobacco, far more dangerous substances.

Portugal legalized pot and other drugs a decade ago and the sky did not fall: European drug addicts did not flock to the country nor did Spain suffer the feared nasty side effects.

This poll should spur the federal government to rethink its crime legislation and to begin a discussion about different models of legalization.

Recreational pot smoking then could be dealt with as we have battled the much more deadly use of tobacco - with public-health campaigns and education.

No one has gone to jail for taking a cigarette break or been busted for grabbing a quick puff, yet we've driven down usage and tobacco has far less cachet today.

The hipster attraction of marijuana can be similarly attacked without exposing our children to criminal prosecution and the risk of a record following them for life.

Let's treat marijuana and other drugs as a health issue rather than a crime.

It's cheaper, better for our communities and safer for kids.

It would let police focus on real criminals, ease the burden of overloaded, backlogged courts and save a fortune in expensive legal and penal costs.

Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae summed it up pretty well in his closing speech: "Let's face up to it, Canada, the war on drugs has been a complete bust."

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Via:Vancuversun

What do patients really want from health care?

 

The central theme of this column has been the urgent need to understand medicine – and to design healthcare innovation (including biopharmaceuticals and health services) — from the patient’s perspective, something many key stakeholders (and would-be stakeholders, such as entrepreneurs – see here) fail to do – at their peril.

So what do patients really want from health care, anyway?  In a recent issue of JAMA, Dr. Allan Detsky, an internist and health policy expert at the University of Toronto tackled this question, based on his years of clinical and research experience.  It’s a terrific, and sobering, piece, as highlighted below.

Highest priority:

Restoring health when ill – “the majority of patients focus on relieving illness and symptoms rather than disease prevention”Timeliness – care is wanted “immediately”Kindness – “in the days before health insurance, patients paid for care that consisted primarily of kindness”Hope and certainty – even in dire situations, patients “want to have hope and be offered options that might help”Continuity, choice, coordination – care from “same person or team” importantPrivate room – including “their own bathroom and no roommate”No out-of-pocket costs – “patients want to pay as little as possible” themselves and to know that “insurance or third-party coverage is always available to them”The best medicine – patients want to know their doctors are “highly qualified” but do not want this information “to be statistical.  They prefer testimonials from other patients or clinicians they trust”Medications and surgery – treatments that patients “perceive will require little effort” are strongly preferred, as are “medications and surgical procedures” compared to “clinical strategies that involve behavior changes.”

Lower priority:

Efficiency – patients only modestly interested in care that delivers “the most value with the least resources”Aggregate-level statistics – far less important to patients than treatments are likely to work “in their specific case.”  Also, as before, “testimonials trump scientific evidence.”Equity – patients are more concerned with whether “they are receiving adequate health care services” than whether “all members of society should have a right to it, regardless of income”Conflicts of interest – patients are less concerned about motivation of provider in prescribing particular treatments “as long as the service helps make them better without increasing the costs they have to bear”

Lowest priority:

Real costs – “individual patients have virtually no interest in costs they do not bear”Percent GNP devoted to healthcare – “just a number and has absolutely no relevance for individual patients”

Implications:

Detsky comments, “Some might say that the consumers’ preferences described in this article are irrational and unrealistic; that may be true…. However, the lack of rationality does not render these preferences irrelevant.”  (I wonder if a seasonal reference to Steve Martin’s “Holiday Wish” might be apropos here.)

He adds that these patient preferences do not “render efficiency, evidence, and rational thinking in health care unimportant,” though they suggest that “policy makers need to truly understand and appreciate what the public really wants when they undertake efforts to reform health care.”

H/t: Dr. David Epstein for flagging the JAMA article.

Via: Forbes