Former NDP MP Peter Stoffer, also the former Veterans Affairs critic for the NDP until his defeat in last year’s election, believes that 10 grams of cannabis a day is overkill.
“Ten grams a day is an awful lot of marijuana to give one person. It is an incredible amount,” Stoffer is quoted saying.
Like how the NDP don’t understand economics, such as minimum wage causing unemployment, price ceilings and floors causing shortages and surpluses, taxation discouraging production, savings, and investment — we can’t expect a former MP to understand cannabis.
Ten grams a day can be necessary. Stoffer doesn’t seem to understand this. While he admits that cannabis has its medicinal uses, he says it’s for pain management, not to get high.
“That’s simply not the way to go. You’re not helping that person at all. You’re not giving them any chance of recovery. All you’re really doing is masking the pain that they’re suffering,” Stoffer said.
Instead, what’s perfectly acceptable in Stoffer’s mind is to “really sit down with these individuals” and pry into their personal life.
“[L]ong before you dispense any marijuana, look at their lifestyle: what are they doing, what are they eating, where do they live, how is their financial situation, how is their personal situation?”
Perhaps Stoffer should take his own advice. Clearly, he’s never heard of juicing.
Since the flower is not heated, the THCA remains non-psychoactive with all the health benefits, as well as the medicinal and therapeutic benefits of all the other compounds.
And, if you don’t like to juice, you can sprinkle some herb on your salad. Hell, you can cover a nugget in coconut oil, pop in your mouth, and suck on that for a while.
Someone smoking 10 grams a day is smoking a lot. But too much? There’s no toxic overdose because cannabis is not toxic, and tolerance goes a long way.
Maybe it’s about the money. Maybe Stoffer is worried about “diversion” but doesn’t want to offend anybody.
Veterans Affairs compensates up to 10 grams a day of medical cannabis for veterans.
Like Harper’s predecessor, Liberal Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr is unhappy about the program, launching an internal review that, “Assesses the department’s current approach to reimbursing marijuana for medical purposes.”
The Auditor General also thinks 10 grams is too much.
Michael Blais of Canadian Veterans Advocacy has taken issue with Stoffer and he’s using all the right language: “No bureaucrat is entitled to get between a patient and a doctor,”
“[F]or anyone who is not in pain, who has not sacrificed, to come out and make arbitrary statements on dosage, that — without even looking at [a] man’s medical record or talking to his doctor, is ludicrous.”
Ludicrous, indeed. But also, another reason not to create more veterans with more wars — taxpayers can’t afford it.