Many countries are relaxing their restrictions on cannabis. It’s been a long time since a psychoactive drug based on a plant and already widely used illicitly has been regulated. That is not surprising, given the trajectories of use and abuse of three of the older regulated products – opioids, tobacco and alcohol. Can THC help? […]
Category: Social stigma
As a public health physician, and as a family physician, I am ashamed. In response to COVID, my colleagues in public health officialdom are losing credibility as they search for politically driven quick fixes and remain silent when individual freedoms are restricted without clear evidence of an enduring relationship to positive outcomes. COVID is here […]
There is a difference between wanting to die and not wanting to stay alive. For patients with terminal physical illnesses who are suffering, there is an acceptance that they do not specifically want to die, rather that living is no longer tolerable for them. We can’t conduct randomized trials to evaluate whether patients, would choose […]
One in four people in the USA have at least one tattoo and in Europe there are about 100 million tattooed bodies. Permanent skin adornment is growing in popularity especially amongst the younger generations. Tattoos like laser treatments are on the cusp between medicine and beauty. Medically tattoos have a variety of uses: to imitate […]
Bloating is becoming a major contemporary health issue largely because of the social stigma attached to a gaseous expulsion that Western culture refuses to accept is a normal part of our digestive process. A study of university students found the majority were embarrassed by their flatulence. We spend a lot of time looking at what […]
The Thinker 