Patients with marijuana toxicity cost the US billions in health care expenses and take up valuable space in ER beds. There seems to be no concern within government or the medical community at large. Instead, both seem focus on increasing availability through legalization as quickly as possible. Quietly it seems the ACEP community has come around to recognition of marijuana complications. Up until recently, physicians who spoke up about the ill effects of marijuana faced rebukes from colleagues who seemed fixated on the merits and popularity of the new drug. This perhaps mirrors the left leaning bias of the emergency physician community.
Circling back, ACEP is saying that not much is known about cannabis complications, more research needs to be done, but they allow independent research and dialogue now on treatments. ACEP has also not pushed to educate the US population on the dangers of marijuana/CBD use and has not called for ‘fact checking’ proponents of Marijuana and CBD.
Interesting, as this approach is decidedly different in its approach to Covid. With Covid, ACEP supported the CDC and Dr Fauci to early on forbid off the shelf treatments, censor discussions amongst colleagues about Covid management, limit discussions the origins of Covid (to prevent future outbreaks), and even after the pandemic ended, continued to censor physicians to do its part in the war against what it still calls ‘misinformation.’ ACEP never questioned the policies and treatments of Covid that frequently were wrong and harmful to patients. It’s literature is entirely pro vaccine, pro big pharmaceutical treatment, and anti-free speech amongst health professionals.
Medical cannabis is yet one more example of rising left wing bias in large medical organizations. Leaders don’t want to question the actions and motives of the political party they support and quietly publish treatments such as capsaicin cream to make it safer and more enjoyable for people to use and abuse marijuana. Marijuana legalization likely means more young voters for the left and more support for their agenda. This mentality is the reason why over 100,000 opiate deaths occurred in the US last year. The medical community wants to focus on Narcan distribution to make it safer to OD without trying to stop drug use in the first place.
Medical organizations seem to be doing their part to keep patients (and physicians to a degree) ignorant, compliant, happy, high, and controllable to further the bidding of the left-wing politicians who are thrusting a Marxist agenda on the US.
John Hughes, MD
Emergency Physician
USMA Class of 1996 (#1 graduate)
3rd Generation West Pointer
4 combat tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan