I read the CBC column, “Phasing out medical cannabis would leave pediatric patients in the lurch,” with interest this weekend.
In short, the fact that the Canadian Medical Association has floated the idea of eliminating the medical cannabis access system is a very serious potential outcome to recreational cannabis legalization that most Canadians are unaware of. Not only could this have dire effects for children, as Dr. MacCallum and Dr. Valleriani outline in their article, but also for the thousands of geriatric and palliative patients living in long-term care. While these elderly patients wouldn’t be restricted by the minimum age limit that pediatric patients face, access to quality-of life-improving medication would be severely restricted if the rules were to change. In short, this is a public health issue that people need to know more about as it could potentially affect some of our most vulnerable patients including children and the elderly.