Pubdate: Thu, 26 Dec 2002
Source: View Magazine (Hamilton, CN ON)
Copyright: 2002 View Magazine
Contact:  http://www.viewmag.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2393
Author: Paul Bobier

HIGH TIME

The recreational use of marijuana remains illegal in Canada, despite 
federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon's suggestion that the law be 
reconsidered.

An Ontario Court of Appeal ruling in 2000 said some seriously ill people 
should be allowed to possess marijuana for medicinal purposes, and Health 
Canada then began a process for licencing the growing and owning of medical 
cannabis. Canadian Health Minister Anne McLellan isn't comfortable on the 
issue of medical marijuana; nor are many medical doctors.

So far, Health Canada has issued several hundred permits for patients to 
legally possess this substance, but some of those applying for them called 
the process time-consuming and hard, while those receiving them found 
getting a supply isn't very easy either.

By last October, Health Canada had approved over 200 small growing 
operations, but was reluctant to distribute a 200 kilogram supply of low 
grade marijuana legally grown in an abandoned Manitoba mine site.

Those opposed to medical cannabis believe it's still an unknown substance 
that hasn't been through enough clinical trials. One Kitchener-Waterloo 
family physician told me that there's not yet a reference manual he can 
consult to get an idea of what the dosage-response rates would be for such 
cigarettes. And then, there remains the question of substance purity, which 
could vary greatly among these cigarettes. With most other prescriptions, 
doctors can consult a reference manual to estimate how their patients may 
respond to a given drug's dosage, and a uniform substance purity is more 
assured.

In late September, Globe and Mail reporter Gay Abbate mentioned that 
doctors were reluctant to sign patients' forms for marijuana, as medical 
associations and insurance companies providing malpractice policies have 
warned them that its potential health risks could lead to legal actions 
being taken against them.

The British Lung Foundation claims cannabis smoking is worse to lung health 
than smoking tobacco, and that smoking three marijuana joints a day could 
be just as bad as smoking 20 tobacco cigarettes.

The foundation's report, issued this November, said tar from marijuana has 
50 per cent more carcinogens than tobacco tar, and that persistent 
marijuana smokers risk lung cancer, emphysema, bronchitis, and other 
illnesses. The British Lung Foundation also reported that in the 1960s, a 
typical marijuana joint had around 10 milligrams of the psychoactive 
ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), and the average joint now has 150 
milligrams of THC.

"We have the evidence of cannabis and its dangers," Dr. Richard Russell, 
spokesman for the British Lung Foundation noted in the November 16 Globe. 
"What we really want to avoid is the situation we had in the 1930s, '40s 
and '50s with cigarettes, where doctors were recommending tobacco as being 
good for you."

In both Britain and Canada, clinical studies on medicinal marijuana use are 
now being conducted with some patients. The Canadian study will use a 
cannabis supply provided by the United States National Institute on Drug 
Abuse, to the objection of American drug policy director John Walters -- 
who opposes both medicinal marijuana programs and the general legalization 
of cannabis.

However, marijuana has also been claimed as useful to some patients in 
countering inflammation, reducing pain and nausea, and in stimulating the 
appetite.

Last September, ten seriously ill patients launched a constitutional 
challenge against the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations and part of the 
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, advocating the law was too strict for 
the medicinal use of cannabis.

Arguing their case was lawyer Alan Young, who told an Ontario Superior 
Court judge that the present rules presented too much red tape for his 
clients to have legal access to medical cannabis. Young also said the 
government's delay in establishing a pure supply of cannabis has forced his 
clients to grow their own or buy impure supplies on the black market.

Opposing Young's position was Justice Department lawyer Harvey Frankel, who 
noted Health Canada's present rules ensure that doctors decide who can 
legally use marijuana, and weakening regulations would increase the number 
of people using various medical excuses to smoke cannabis. Frankel told the 
court, "For any ailment known to mankind, someone's claimed marijuana is 
good for it."

Frankel believed the average user of medicinal marijuana smokes five grams 
per day, and that missing personal information or failure to provide 
photographs were the main reasons in holding up medical marijuana permits 
- --not a lack of doctors' approvals. Earlier this year, the Toronto-based 
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health released the results of its survey 
of both the medical and non-medical use of marijuana by Ontario residents. 
2,406 adults were surveyed in 2000 for this purpose. Men (at 14.3 per cent 
of those surveyed) were almost twice as likely as women (at 7.7 per cent of 
those surveyed) to have reported smoking marijuana in 1999. Reported 
marijuana use was 28.2 per cent among those 18 to 29 years, 12.3 per cent 
among those 30 to 39 years, 6.4 per cent among those 40 to 49 years, 2.9 
per cent among those 50 to 64 years, and 0 per cent for those 65 years and 
older. Of respondents who were married, 6.2 per cent reported marijuana use 
in 1999, while reported marijuana use was 26.4 per cent among those who 
were never married.

In Canada, marijuana use was made illegal in 1923. 30 years ago, the Le 
Dain Commission recommended its use be legalized. This year, a Canadian 
Senate committee came out with a report advising that smoking marijuana be 
legal for anybody over 16 years of age, and that there be a regulated 
system for producing and selling it. And just last week, Newfoundland and 
Labrador Premier Roger Grimes told reporters that marijauna should not only 
be legalized, but that the government should treat it like alcohol and levy 
taxes from its sale.

Against these Senate recommendations are those who feel more liberal 
cannabis use by the public will lead to more users of the harder drugs.

According to Report on Business magazine's November edition, around 800 
tons of cannabis moves around Canada every year, half of it being grown in 
people's homes. Needed in the national marijuana debate is more information 
on cannabis' total effects on human health, and that may take years to get.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart