Patients Out
of Time is pleased to announce that the Public Health Association
of Wisconsin
has issued a statement positive about the therapeutic use of Cannabis
for the sick and dying.
This state organization, demonstrating patient advocacy
principles follows the lead of the oldest and largest health care organization
in the U.S., The American Public Health Association.
The national organization
stated that, Realizing that thousands of patients not helped by conventional
medications and treatments may find relief from their suffering with the use
of marijuana if their primary care providers were to prescribe this medicine...(the
APHA) urges the Administration and Congress to move expeditiously to make Cannabis
available as a legal medicine where shown to be safe and effective and to immediately
allow access to therapeutic cannabis through the Investigational New Drug Program.
These two professional groups are but
two of dozens of such groups that represent some two
million health care professionals across the United
States that have
issued letterhead statements that echo the sentiment and phrasing of these
leading health care advocates.
The Wisconsin announcement came just days before the medical
leadership of both Canada and Great Britain came to the same conclusion.
It is not just the health care community that understands the need to release
the sick and dying from the mendacity of the United States policy of
therapeutic Cannabis prohibition.
The Commonwealth of Virginia has completed
the Quality of Life in Virginia: 1998 Report conducted by the
Center for Survey Research of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Stare University,
Blacksburg, VA. The Center asserts that both objective measures and quality
of life surveys are of equal value in the policy decisions of the Commonwealth.
The Center further contends that for economic development and social program
planning the need to assess and monitor quality of life has, ever been
more critical.
In answer to the question, Doctors should be
legally allowed to prescribe marijuana for medical use when it reduces pain
from cancer
treatment of for other illnesses, 72.2% of the citizenry answered that
they either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed. 69.2%
with that opinion were over 40 years of age.
Mary Lynn Mathre, RN, CARN, an expert addictions consultant to the University
of Virginias Health System, confirmed that this finding is exceeded
by the professional nursing community. Within the Virginia Nurses Association,
no less than 90 percent of the membership agrees that Cannabis can be a valuable
medicine. It is the physicians and their patients who should decide if Cannabis
is appropriate to be prescribed not lawyers turned politicians. The
Virginia public agrees with Nurse Mathre as does the Virginia Nurses Society
on Addictions.
That group has issued a policy paper, as has the VNA, calling for the immediate
return of Cannabis to the Formulary of the U.S. Addiction specialists
understand that marijuana is not an addictive substance, is impossible to
overdose and yet provides a variety of clinically valuable results that include
the
remission of addictive symptoms in cocaine and alcohol addiction. It would
be a miracle
drug if it werent known as marijuana.
Patients Out of Time updates its list of organizations that support the medical
use of Cannabis under a physicians care, when notified. If you would
like a copy of the present list, help in formulating a statement for your
organization, or to add a group to the list, please contact:
Patients Out
of Time at (804)
263-4484 or email Patients@MedicalCannabis.com.