Autumn 2005
O'Shaughnessy's
Journal of the California Cannabis Research Medical
Group
|
Continuing Mutual Education
(About O'Shaughnessy's)
The Society of Cannabis Clinicians (SCC), was founded in 1999 by Tod
Mikuriya, MD to enable doctors monitoring cannabis use by their patients
to share findings and observations. It was originally called the California
Cannabis Research Medical Group.
O’Shaughnessy’s is produced for the SCC doctors by the
managing editor and distributed to patients, caregivers, and concerned
citizens. The goal is mutual continuing education —to keep
ourselves abreast of scientific developments in the field of cannabis
therapeutics,
as well as relevant political, legal and economic developments.
As Rick Steves pointed out in his speech at this year’s NORML
meeting (see page 26), we’re all subjected to a constant dumbing-down
process in America. O’Shaughnessy’s is an attempt to
compensate for our miseducation.
To get involved with the paper as a contributor and/or distributor,
contact [email protected] Our phone number is 415-305-4758.
Subscriptions are not available, but a contribution of any amount to
the California Cannabis Research Medical Group will get you on the
mailing list for future issues. The CCRMG is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization.
The mailing address is:
p.o. box 9143 Berkeley CA 94709.
We look forward to the day that the ratio of science to politics
in these pages is 10:1. The field of cannabis therapeutics will
really
take off once California growers have access to an analytical test
lab and can determine the cannabinoid content of their plants. Then
patients can begin treating their given conditions with strains of
known composition —high in CBD to treat anxiety and insomnia,
high in THC to stimulate appetite, etc. And SCC doctors and committed
dispensary operators will be able to conduct clinical trials that
transform anecdotal evidence into data acceptable to those members
of the medical establishment not totally in thrall of the pharmaceutical
industry.
The obstacles to research are political. The forces in our society
that opposed the medical marijuana initiative in 1996 have choked
off its implementation. By all estimates, fewer than 200,000 Californians
have obtained approval to use cannabis medicinally in the nine years
since it became legal—in a state where millions might benefit
if they felt free to try.
More than five million adult Californians voted for Prop 215 in the
privacy of a voting booth. (That’s an antiquated image but let’s
let it stand.) All but a few are scared to ask their own doctor for
a recommendation. What that does that say about the general level of
fear in the “land of the free and the home of the brave?”