Plague Days Medicine.

Nowadays my daily newspaper is packed with medical news. There is hardly room for anything else. It is even pushing Donald Trump off the front page.
Just today, for instance, in the face of frighteningly escalating numbers the front page posted an article headed " A little humility from public health officials would go a long way". Indeed, they have much to be humble about. An early astounding lack of common sense in both the politicians in charge and their medical advisers is obvious and resulted in many diverse opinions and much contradictory emotional advice, little of it with a sound basis in science The reluctance to take appropriate measures early on for fear of public disapproval, resulted in the loss of an early opportunity to nip the pandemic in the bud. When the bombastic U.S. President closed immigration from China, he was accused of racism.  When he insisted in calling the Coronavirus the "China Virus", he was accused of racism.  Planes were still coming from China to Toronto and Vancouver regularly on a daily basis when all such travel should have been rigorously banned.
The article went on to attempt to analyze the effectiveness or lack of it, of the various measures recommended by government and their medical advisers. Unfortunately, recommendations mean little unless they are followed and enforceable. There is a core of individuals who will not follow them unless forced to do so and by definition recommendations are not enforceable, They re just suggestions. This makes it impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of any measures unless they become laws. The cavalier attitude of those who don't want their 'rights' intruded upon disregards the safety and rights of the rest of the population. It is the government's mandate to protect society as a whole and there are many examples of over-riding the rights of individuals where they may be damaging to society as a whole. It is necessary to make the use of face-masks and the other protective measures compulsory because they probably do provide some protection and this is how we are going to find out how effective they are. Government needs to do what is necessary, regardless of whether it is popular or not, to make life as safe as possible for the majority of the population.

A Judge with Commonsense!  
The next heading read,"Judge halts trans teen's mastectomy." The judge, a sane woman, granted an injunction against a cosmetic surgeon and the teenager's family doctor after a request from the mother. This prevents the the surgeon from advising or promoting a double mastectomy or any surgery on the girl to allow the mother, who opposes the surgery, a chance to determine if all the proper protocols were followed. The mother's lawyer stated, "The mother needs to see that all the protocols that led the two doctors to come to the conclusion that did was what was in the best interests of her daughter." The mother further said she thought the procedure was not in the best interests of her daughter and that she she was opposed to her receiving sex altering steroids. Further, she stated that she had emailed both the doctors and got no answers.
"I'm in total darkness and I don't have any rights," said the mother. "I need some time for her to grow up and mature."
It boggles the mind that a family doctor and a cosmetic surgeon can undertake such drastic and controversial action (and it is controversial from both a medical and moral point of view) without responding to the mother's attempt to contact them.
Commonsense and common decency are becoming the exception.  
The decline continues.

Cannabis is not enough!

   On 17th of October, 2018. Marijuana was legalized for recreational use in Canada.. 

   So it is now two years since Canada introduced recreational marijuana to Canadians, as a harmless method of mental masturbation. But is it harmless?
   A child of the Pot culture himself and a self confessed user, the prime minister and his administridiots sensed that legalization of Pot would be an easy way to buy votes. I would expect no more from him, but I did expect more from my colleagues in the medical profession, who I thought knew better. Unfortunately, when there is easy money to be made some will jump at the opportunity, regardless of their profession.
   Family example is important. Trudeau father said the following:“I was in Turkey and these guys invited me into one of the coffee shops and passed the hookah around and I smoked it. What was in it, I don’t know, probably some hash. Same thing in India (and) China. I smoked all kinds of things.” – Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.  He may not have started the decline, he certainly encouraged it along.  Regarding his disturbed mother, Margaret Trudeau’s quoted statement that the RCMP knew she smoked “pot” in the prime minister’s residence and her outrageous and inappropriate behavior did nothing to dissuade Canadians from the desirability of the legislation of marijuana.  As Canadians, who used to be among the "happiest people on earth" have developed a horrible reputation for drug abuse, they are no longer satisfied with old fashioned pot or even the much more potent strains they managed to cultivate and are now looking for much more potent drugs to stimulate their numbed sensoria.
   Enter "DABBING", a practice that has become increasingly used by many, as well as the youngest drug addicts. Oxford dictionary definition of 'dab' 1.2A: small portion of cannabis oil or resin, or another drug in a highly concentrated form, that can be vaporized or burned and inhaled. Example: ‘the patient reported taking a dab of marijuana approximately five hours before his appointment’. This process greatly enhances the potency of THC by as much as 80-90%. Dabs are made by pouring butane over marijuana . This is heated with a blow torch that makes a 'nail' red-hot on which the resin sits and is vaporized into a dangerous inhalable gas. You can look at the whole process on line. This is a whole new game that is nothing like smoking a joint. It is dangerous and can cause tachycardia, black-outs, psychotic symptoms, as well as inhaling carcinogenic compounds to name some of its side-effects. It is often contaminated with poisonous solvents. The whole process is dangerous, flammable and chemically unstable. The use of the blow-torch in vaporizing the drug is a serious fire hazard.  It is more like crack cocaine or crystal meth than marijuana. Marijuana is a dangerous gateway drug. Trudeau and the Liberal Government did great damage by encouraging its use. I am sure it will further stimulate drug abuse in Canada. And now, they (the administridiots) are looking to decriminalize hard drug abuse. They know it as a way to gain re-election and to cling to power.  Holding on to power is what it is all about..

    This is what George Orwell had to say about power: 

 “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.” ― George Orwell, 1984