1) My father was a doctor.
2) I had good grades at school, it was either this or a lawyer.
3) I had good grades and didn't know what to do.
4) Good money.
None of the interns answered that they wanted to help sick, suffering people, to ease their pain.
Now I'm not saying doctors don't have compassion and don't want to help people, but these were the replies, they studied hard at school, had the grades and made the huge choice in life at such a young age, what will I do with my life?
So doctors are studious, intelligent people and many are very caring in what would be a very tiring and testing job, dealing with suffering people all day every day.
So I take my hat off to anyone that can deal with that for 50 years.
BUT, their main job is diagnosing and then prescribing what pharmaceutical companies recommend.... or should I say coerce? maybe that's a tad strong ??
No coerce is probably the right description.
When a pharmaceutical company is making 10 billion $ profit annually, coerce is probably pretty spot on.
Doctors are not bio chemists, inventors (in general), researchers or molecular biologists, they are taught to know the human anatomy within the curriculum of the university they attend and then the prescribe what's available as suggested by pharmaceutical companies.
They have not been trained about the Endocannabinoid system which was only discovered in the mid 90's, they know very little if anything about cannabis or it's medicinal effects.
Basically they're mechanics, they don't build or design the car or make the tools that are required to fix them, they use the tools that are available.
Academics have a specific field of knowledge that they excel at, but can be idiots in other areas, like all of us.
Pharmaceutical companies are not really interested in changing the status quo of things because their share holders are pretty happy with 10 billion in profit yearly.
So the fact that doctors are not lining up to prescribe medical cannabis is not surprising.
The thing I think we need to remember is that cannabis is not a toxic substance, meaning there is no lethal dose yet to be discovered. Not one death in the history of cannabis use worldwide to my knowledge.
There are very few drugs this can be said about.
Quite often I hear people say  " I had a friend who went mad using cannabis, never been the same" and I refer them to this information from the associate prof of psychiatry Harvard Uni.

 One percent of the population needs to be cautious with cannabis or maybe this is not the right medicine for them, or maybe they need to be careful with the strain of cannabis they use, there has been so little research on cannabis it's hard to say what to advise the one percent, but from what I've read, a more balanced THC-CBD strain of cannabis is safer.
The other thing to remember about those who have been effected adversely by cannabis is that those predisposed to mental illness self medicate and not always wisely.
People suffering bipolar or similar, enjoy their highs, they get creative and feel great.... better than most of us!, but as always, there is a ying and yang effect to deal with. Where there's a mountain a valley is nearby.
The government of Australia are trying to balance a very fragile Australian economy atm, what they lack is creativity and moral fibre. Manufacture in Australia is dead, 60% of investment properties lie vacant (in Melbourne), while rents are obnoxiously overpriced. What to do, it's such a mess and stressful environment it's no wonder cancer is so prevalent.
So wise up Australia, listen to the scientists, not doctors or politicians and not pharmaceutical companies.
With the abundance of anecdotal evidence present, it can't all be wrong.


weed and weep
Bob Darley