Pubdate: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 Source: Maclean's Magazine (Canada) Section: Overture, The Week That Was, Pg 19 Copyright: 2001 Maclean Hunter Publishing Ltd Contact: http://www.macleans.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/253 Author: Shanda Deziel, editor of article NEW RULES FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE Ottawa unveiled regulations that will allow Canadians to use marijuana for medical purposes if they can meet strict conditions. The regulations, expected to take effect during the next few months, will permit patients who cannot grow marijuana themselves to designate a care-giver to raise it for them. Under the proposed system, terminal patients and those suffering from AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, severe arthritis and other conditions could win exemptions for legal marijuana use to relieve pain and other symptoms, including muscle spasms, nausea and seizures. To qualify, doctors will have to satisfy Ottawa that other approved treatments are ineffective or cause problems for their patients. "It's a step in the right direction," said Hilary Black, co-director of the Vancouver-based British Columbia Compassion Club Society, which distributes marijuana to medical users. "But we don't see why bureaucrats have to be involved -- a simple doctor's prescription for marijuana should be enough." The new rules were drawn up last July after Ontario's Court of Appeal struck down the federal criminal law on marijuana because existing regulations rely too heavily on ministerial discretion. The court said unless Ottawa changed the law within a year, growing and possessing marijuana would cease to be a crime in Ontario. Under the current process, 220 Canadians have exemptions for the medical use of marijuana. Federal officials declined to speculate about how many exemptions might be granted under the new rules. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth