A recent Letter to the Editor to The Berkshire Eagle
Your recent article about “Pot on Statewide Ballot” states;
“the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS), representing 24,000 doctors, also
opposes legalizing medicinal marijuana without scientific proof that if would
be safe and effective on patients.”
Really? Perhaps they never heard of Google. Or, they have
some other motives
According to the government: the FDA’s Adverse Event
Reporting System (2009) Annual Causes of Death in the US :
Cannabis/Marijuana ranks dead last, at ZERO deaths.
“Indeed, epidemiological data indicate that in the general
population marijuana use is not associated with increased mortality.” Source:
Janet E. Joy: “Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base,” Division of
Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Institute of Medicine (Washington, DC:
National Academy Press, 1999), p. 109.
On the other hand:
1. According to the CDC: “in the United States
2. Lack
of health insurance and access to basic care kills 44,789/year.
3. Preventable
medical errors in hospitals kill 12,000/week = 624,000/year, a conservative
estimate, responsible for 26% of deaths, making it the 3rd leading
cause of death.
4.
An article by Dr. Barbara Starfield, MD,
MPH, in JAMA: Vol.284, No.4, 07/26/2000: revealed that prescription drugs kill
around 106,000 people in the US every year making it the fourth leading cause
of death. “The data did not include fatal reactions caused by accidental
overdoses or errors in administration of the drugs. If these had been included,
it is estimated that another 100,000
deaths would be added to the total every
year.” Furthermore,
every year there are 2,216,000 serious adverse drug reactions (ADR’S). HMO’s
spend more money treating ADR’s than they do on drugs.
When you understand that the MMS, like the AMA, are trade associations
whose primary purpose is to protect doctors’ incomes, and have virtually
nothing to do with improving patient safety and care outcomes, then the above
starts to make some sense.
Why would they deny suffering and dying patients access to a benign, very
helpful, inexpensive medicinal herb? As always, follow the money.
Clearly, the MMS and the AMA should be more concerned about the
scientific proof, safety and efficacy of their doctors’ routine medical
practices and prescribing habits.
The functioning of our democracy depends on an informed public given,
as best possible, verifiable facts, not self-serving myths.
Peter May
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