Survey: 76% of doctors would approve of medical marijuana

[RainDog]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/survey-76-percent-of-doctors-approve-of-medical-marijuana-use/

A majority of doctors would approve the use of medical marijuana, according to a new survey.

"We were surprised by the outcome of polling and comments, with 76 percent of all votes in favor of the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes -- even though marijuana use is illegal in most countries," the survey's authors wrote.

The results appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine on May 30. It included responses from 1,446 doctors from 72 different countries and 56 different states and provinces in North America. In addition, 118 doctors posted comments about their decision on the survey.

Doctors surveyed were given a hypothetical case about a woman named "Marylin," a 68-year-old woman with breast cancer that had metastasized -- or spread -- to her lungs, chest cavity and spine. They were asked if they would give her medical marijuana to help her with her symptoms.

In a commentary for the survey, an American psychiatrist called for studies on the medical uses of marijuana. Doctors spoke of relieving suffering and the benefit of marijuana in comparison to legal painkillers.

[tridim]

1. I hope this is a sign that doctors are becoming a little more skeptical of big pharma.

I'm not shocked by the results since it's obvious that Cannabis is effective medicine. Doctors aren't stupid.

[RainDog]

2. The one doctor at the 1937 hearings to make "marijuana" illegal

Protested the move and he was attacked by politicians who sided with the duPonts, etc. who wanted to make cannabis illegal.

duPont, of course, also hated the New Deal, had a new product to market, so eliminating the competition, no matter the method, seemed to be the only important thing in those hearings.

...that and talking about the way cannabis made people think in terms of equality - which they presented as the scare words about white women consorting with black men.

via wiki -

The bill was passed over the last-minute objections of the American Medical Association. Dr. William Creighton Woodward, legislative counsel for the AMA objected to the bill on the grounds that the bill had been prepared in secret without giving proper time to prepare their opposition to the bill.[15] He doubted their claims about marijuana addiction, violence, and overdosage; he further asserted that because the word Marijuana was largely unknown at the time, the medical profession did not realize they were losing cannabis. "Marijuana is not the correct term... Yet the burden of this bill is placed heavily on the doctors and pharmacists of this country."

from - Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate, 75c 2s. HR6906. Library of Congress transcript. July 12, 1937

which people can read about for themselves here: http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/t1.htm