After working for nearly forty years in substance and drug abuse treatment and prevention programs, Dr. David Bearman has a few questions, including: “Why should the government stand in the way of an individual to take responsibility for their health?” And, “Why should cannabis be in a separate category from other herbal remedies?” Dr. Bearman believes that “it is clear to all but the most scientifically illiterate that cannabis and cannabinoids are medicine.”
A pioneer in free and community clinic activities, Dr. Bearman is one of the leading physicians in the U.S. in the field of medical cannabis. His decades of work in substance abuse treatment and prevention qualify him as an expert, not only in conventional treatment and prevention, but in the therapeutic use of cannabis as well.
In his essay, The Tipping Point, this Santa Barbara physician and surgeon asks another, intriguing question, “Are we finally nearing the end to a long pointless war of hysteria?” Bearman continues, “We may have finally reached a tipping point in this long war on our sanity,” and cites several indicators that the war against cannabis might soon be over:
- In December, 2005, the FDA finally approved phase III clinical studies for tincture of cannabis, to be conducted by GW Pharmaceuticals
- Two of the most ferocious former federal drug warriors, Congressman Bob Barr and Dr. Andrea Barthwell, Deputy Drug Czar under President George W. Bush, have seen the light and switched sides, now working as spokespeople for the Marijuana Policy Project and GW Pharmaceuticals, respectively.
- The Hinchey – Rohrbacher Amendment continues to slowly gain support, and that support is expected to increase dramatically in the near future.
- In June 2001, Professor Lyle Craker applied to the DEA for a license to grow and study cannabis at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The DEA has ignored a ruling in the case to approve his license.
- Growing numbers of U.S. physicians are openly supporting medical cannabis.
Dr. Bearman believes that these indicators are undeniable proof of Americans’ collective change of mind about the worth of cannabis as medicine, and that the real issues raised by medical cannabis are Constitutional and philosophical.
Bearman and other informed observers believe that, with the great interest shown by the pharmaceutical industry in the development of new cannabis-based drugs and synthetic cannabinoids, we will benefit from a better understanding of brain chemistry, and that different strains of condition-specific cannabis will continue to be developed, along with similar synthetics, making the future of medicinal cannabis look promising indeed.
Learn more about Dr. David Bearman and his outstanding accomplishments for medical cannabis patients. See http://www.davidbearmanmd.com