Pubdate: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 Source: Beacon Herald, The (CN ON) Copyright: 2002 Beacon Herald Contact: http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1459 MINISTER'S DISCOMFORT VS. AGONY OF PATIENTS Toronto lawyer Alan Young has the picture right: Anne Mclellan, Canada's health minister, is either 'confused, or she's being disingenuous,' relating her discomfort with allowing people with epilepsy, terminal cancer, or chronic pain legal access to marijuana. When you consider the group to whom McLellan shared her discomfort -- the Canadian medical establishment -- you could include doctors in the group of confused and disingenuous. McLellan's comments may be increasing the pain of people suffering from incurable and agonizing diseases -- all for the comfort and profit of drug companies and doctors who are paid to prescribe ever more expensive (and debatably less effective) relief. First is the issue of the law. Mclellan should know -- she used to be the federal justice minister, after all -- that the courts have roundly struck down pot possession laws for people who use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Courts in Ontario and Alberta have repeated that they will not enforce laws that place people in agony. In fact, the current situation in law stems from the federal government being given a court deadline to either change possession laws for people using marijuana for medical relief of pain and suffering, or the courts would simply cease to enforce any part of the laws restricting use of marijuana. They were given 12 months to act and they did. Thus, the next point: the government has a $5.7-million project to grow and distribute marijuana to select patients for the next four years. Enter the doctors. Their national association has told its members not to sign any formal patient requests to receive any of the 400 kg of medicinal pot the federal government is having grown each year for four years specifically for this use. Just the same, more than 800 patients have qualified under the government's rules for the special program. However, it's now doubtful any of them will, due to the medical association's pressure and Mclellan's personal discomfort. Imagine this: some of them are now turning to the courts to force the uncomfortable McLellan to release the drug to them. Too bad her discomfort counts for more than the agony of someone who has multiple epileptic seizures every day and for whom marijuana offers the only relief available. Or the suffering of someone dying of cancer, for whom only marijuana will give relief from the horrific effects of chemotherapy. Mclellan, the person in charge of the government's anti-tobacco campaign, doesn't want to send the message that a person with liver cancer, say, should be confused by a message that it's OK to smoke. What a big, fat, stinking red herring. The doctors say they don't want to risk lawsuits for prescribing an untested drug. Yet untested drugs are given all the time to patients in dire straits, who knowingly sign the appropriate releases. And these untested drugs and procedures don't have near the overwhelming weight of anecdotal evidence of efficacy that marijuana has. Unfortunately, what marijuana doesn't have is profit potential for drug companies. Therein lies the biggest rub of all. It is impossible not to deduce that since the federal grow program began, as a result of the courts telling the government their laws stink and they won't enforce them anymore, that a massive lobbying campaign of pressure on doctors and the government is causing some 'sober' second thoughts. We're not urging people to seek relief in illegal sources of marijuana. That would be disrespect for the law, disrespect for doctors and disrespect for the federal government -- all of which are leaving a small group of vulnerable people at the extreme edge of suffering. We wouldn't do that. They'll have to think of ways to do that themselves, and invite yet more court intervention. Pity. ~~~~~ This editorial originally appeared in The Red Deer (Alberta) Advocate and was made available to The Beacon Herald through the Canadian Press editorial exchange. - --- MAP posted-by: Alex