Continuing our report on the August 30 MBC Marijuana Task Force meeting …  A handout distributed at  the Aug. 30 meeting in Sacramento of the Medical Board of California’s Marijuana Cannabis Task Force was a slightly revised version of a “Medical Cannabis Agreement” written by Brad Wilsey, MD, and colleagues from the Center for Medical Cannabis Research at UC San Diego. Originally  published in the Clinical Journal of Pain 2015; 31 (12), it could have been entitled “Medical Cannabis is not Quite as Dangerous as Plutonium.”

Perry Solomon, MD, questioned whether the “Agreement” was reality-based and MBC Executive Director Kimberly Kirchmayer quickly put in that the board was planning to provide it to physicians as “a tool they might want to use,” but it would not be mandatory that the physicians in turn provide it to patients.

Kirchmayer had been effusive in thanking the CMCR for educating the MBC Marijuana Task Force members, but Dale Gieringer now wonders whether it was CMCR or Wilsey, individually, who arranged for the MBC to promote the fear-inducing “Agreement.”

It’s not an insignificant matter. Fear mongering by the medical establishment “justifies” a huge, ongoing role for Law Enforcement and Regulatory Authorities in the era of so-called legalization. Cities throughout the state are right now drafting ordinances based on an exaggerated sense of the dangers posed by cannabis. The California legislature, in drafting the regulations soon to take effect, cited the CMCR as the definitive authority regarding the safety profile of cannabis. CMCR director, Igor Grant, MD, is an establishment psychiatrist who has been amply funded throughout his career by the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Promoting a “Medical Cannabis Treatment Agreement” is a perfect example of Psychiatry (the real religion of our time) wielding tremendous political influence.  We have written about it here and here.