Erik Messamore is a psychiatrist.

Many medical marijuana program websites are silent about possible risks

Medications
August 4, 2020

Click through North Dakota’s Division of Medical Marijuana website, past the addresses of every cannabis dispensary in the state, into the presentations and annual reports, and you’ll eventually come to a 32-slide presentation about the state’s medical marijuana program. You’ll see the 26 diseases that can be treated with marijuana, a colorful flowchart showing the types of available marijuana, and a …

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Many medical marijuana program websites are silent about possible risks

It’s time to pay people to self-quarantine

Conditions and Diseases
March 16, 2020

It’s a devastating fact: More than a million Americans could die from the novel coronavirus. But we can prevent this catastrophe through simple measures like sleeve sneezing, washing our hands, and staying home when we’re sick.

The problem is, nearly everyone goes to work when they’re sick.

We need to fix that.

Consider this scenario.

Monica is a certified nursing …

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It’s time to pay people to self-quarantine

America has seen medical marijuana before: This is what we learned (and forgot)

Medications
March 16, 2019

Very few things in the universe are 100 percent good or 100 percent bad. Cannabis is perfectly ordinary in having a mixture of good qualities (medical benefits) and bad qualities (medical risks). The people who want to make money – lots of money, by the way – from selling marijuana do a perfectly fine job of pointing out the good. But they don’t educate the public about the possible risks. They know it will …

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America has seen medical marijuana before: This is what we learned (and forgot)

Esketamine is not a breakthrough new drug: Why the nasal spray for depression is old news

Medications
March 6, 2019

The FDA has given official approval to market eskatamine as a treatment for depression. As expected, there has been great fanfare (press releases, morning TV talk show guests, NPR segments and so on). The news leaves me salty. The esketamine story reveals so much of what is wrong about how we get useful medical science findings into clinical practice.

Esketamine is not a new drug

Esketamine is being promoted as a new …

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Esketamine is not a breakthrough new drug: Why the nasal spray for depression is old news