Pubdate: Tue, 23 Apr 2002
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2002, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author: Mindelle Jacobs, Edmonton Sun
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

OTTAWA'S NOT A VERY GOOD DRUG DEALER

The federal government is obviously profoundly uncomfortable at the idea of 
dabbling in the drug-dealing business.

Last year, with much fanfare, Ottawa unveiled what it described as a 
"compassionate framework" to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

The new regulations were designed to replace exemption provisions that 
required people to get special permission from the health minister to use 
pot for therapeutic reasons.

It was supposed to be easier for those suffering from debilitating 
illnesses to access medical marijuana. Things haven't turned out that way.

As part of the application process, patients are supposed to obtain 
declarations from medical specialists that include, among other details, a 
recommended dosage.

Physicians, as you can imagine, aren't interested in prescribing a drug 
without clear, scientific evidence on the risks and benefits.

As a result, doctors have been largely reluctant to co-operate and Ottawa 
has had to grant extensions under the old rules to many patients who were 
previously allowed to smoke pot.

Two months ago, I wrote about an Edmonton couple suffering from hepatitis C 
whose exemption from prosecution under the old law was scheduled to expire 
at the end of this week.

Try as they might, Dale and Alice Strohmaier couldn't find specialists who 
would help them apply for permission to use pot under the new regulations.

The day my column ran, a Health Canada official phoned them and gave 
assurances that the problem would be resolved.

Sure enough, the couple were granted a six-month extension. Numerous other 
sick Canadians have been quietly granted similar renewals because they, 
too, haven't been able to convince doctors to fill in their applications.

But they're sorely mistaken if they think they'll have access to Ottawa's 
own research-grade weed any time soon.

Sure, the plants have been harvested in the government's high-security 
underground pot bunker in Flin Flon, but the stuff is just sitting there 
smelling up the place.

When Health Canada announced in December 2000 that Prairie Plant Systems 
Inc. had won a $5.7-million contract to grow standardized pot for medical 
and research needs, it declared that the government-authorized marijuana 
would be available in a year.

More than a year later, priorities have changed.

There is no "time frame" as to when the Flin Flon pot will be distributed, 
Farah Mohamed, spokesman for Health Minister Anne McLellan, told me yesterday.

And that's not all. Our official weed won't be released to the ailing 
Canadians who qualify until clinical trials on medicinal pot have been 
completed, she said.

"We're not in the business of taking risks," she added, saying the 
government has no intention of distributing an untested product.

In that case, Ottawa should have clearly stated right from the beginning 
that it would likely be years before people not involved in clinical trials 
would have access to government pot.

The clinical trials, by the way, haven't begun yet.

In the meantime, there's all that pot stored in Flin Flon, which, unless 
it's really wicked, is bound to lose its potency as the months go by.

York University law professor Alan Young predicts Ottawa will end up 
incinerating this batch on the grounds that it no longer has any medicinal 
value.

While the government is committed to clinical trials, it's not particularly 
interested in being a drug dealer for ill Canadians, says Young, who has 
represented ailing Canadians in their fight to use pot.

"I don't think they can backpedal on this. They can stall, they can delay, 
but I don't think they can subvert it. We have to move forward eventually."

Young plans to push the process along. He's about to go to court to try to 
have Ottawa's medicinal pot regulations quashed. If he wins, pot possession 
will no longer be a crime. That should give Ottawa a buzz.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom