There’s a side effect to this thing we see happening in healthcare today — people are learning that cannabis is medicine and doctors aren’t all so eager to agree.

But the growing distrust or animosity between doctor and patient makes the patient lie to the doctor.

I know of hundreds of patients who started ingesting cannabis and didn’t tell their doctors until tumors started shrinking, and vomiting subsided. When the tests start coming back showing improvements, it’s not easy to keep calm and quiet.

The side effect is healing and this healing comes from the conjunction of these two amazing forms of medicine: western medicine and cannabinoid medicine.

I believe, as so many do, that the relationship between a healer and their patient should be sacred. It should be gut-wrenchingly honest and truthful. It should always and only be for the good of the patient where he or she takes part in deciding every single aspect if they can, and the healer should be eager to comply.

This relationship transmutes over time to teacher and student as the healer must advise and instruct us; help us understand why our bodies are doing this. But they should be eager to listen, to learn, to know how the medicine made us feel. They also learn from us. We at times are the teacher and they the student — or at least it was like this at one time.

Many patients are tired of the pills and have disclosed our cannabis use to our doctors. What I think has happened is that many medical doctors haven’t then disclosed to Health Canada that their patients admitted to using cannabis, leaving us with a health ministry that has no idea how many illegal medical cannabis users Canada really has.

I wonder how many doctors there are who have success stories tucked away in personal files in their office.

Have they ever told Health Canada about the patients who swear that cannabis heals? Or would patient-doctor confidentiality hinder the transfer of this crucial information?

We’re having great success when cannabis oil is consumed during cancer treatments. It goes above quelling nausea and raising appetite — cannabinoids are protecting the body from the chemo.

Cannabis has been shown in studies and in anecdotal evidence to make opioids work better, allowing the patient to lower their dose. Crohn’s patients are being put into remission every day. Certain cannabinoids lower inflammation so the medicine can get to where it needs to be. I have friends with MS and Fibromyalgea who simply would not be able to live the active lives they have if it weren’t for cannabinoid therapy. These are all people who have tried the gamut of pharmaceutical options and found that they didn’t work for their biology,

I know of a boy named Liam whose Dravet’s syndrome is managed with cannabis oil alone. He’s one of our youngest legal MMPR patients. Mommy makes the oil with cannabis grown by the legal growers. Oh, what this little boy’s experience with pharmaceuticals alone, could teach the medical industry.

A girl named Mykayla‘s Lymphoblastic Leukaemia is in remission today because her parents started giving her whole plant cannabis oil alongside her chemotherapy. She went into remission a mere six days after her first caplet of this dark and gooey concentrate.

If I could have every healer’s ear for a moment I would say this: You’re missing out on miracles!

You’re missing out on watching plant compounds annihilate cancer cells. You’re missing out on watching cannabis oil stop seizures in their tracks by simply rubbing it on kids’ gums. You’re missing out on chronic pain sufferers and trauma sufferers regaining the ability to feel emotions again with cannabis when they stop or lessen opioids and anti-anxiety meds. You’re missing out on Crohn’s patients going into remission for the first time ever.

And yet, Health Canada still doesn’t recognize cannabis as medicine.

Calling all doctors, surgeons, shamans, nurses and nurse practitioners too — hurry up, you’re missing out on miracles.