Pubdate: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 Source: Halifax Herald (CN NS) Copyright: 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited Contact: http://www.herald.ns.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180 WHAT A HASH THE CANADIAN MEDICAL Association is right in objecting to Ottawa's half-baked plan to have doctors dispense medical marijuana to federally approved patients. Arguing, correctly, that the policy does nothing to protect patient safety or to provide physicians with an evidence-based framework to support prescribing pot, the CMA is strongly recommending that doctors not participate in dispensing the drug under the current regulations. The CMA's protest is a healthy reminder this issue should not simply be driven by expediency and the courts. Judges can rule on fair and compassionate access to a drug, but they are still not licensed to practise medicine. The Ontario Superior Court had set last Wednesday as the deadline for Ottawa to provide legal access to marijuana for medical use. Ottawa is appealing the decision, but on the last day, Health Canada threw together a policy of having doctors sell federally supplied cannabis and seeds from their offices to approved patients. Both Health Canada and doctors are uneasy about a lack of clinical evidence on the safety and efficacy of a substance that has not been subjected to the drug-approval process. And obvious health questions are raised by using smoking as a delivery system. But the feds have ignored health and science due diligence, opting instead for a quick and dirty way to satisfy the courts. It does not have to be this way. The CMA has suggested 10 criteria that would make regulations medically defensible. These include physician education and liability protection and setting up the program as a clinical trial, with authorized doctors, treatment protocols, monitoring of patients and studies of the impact of the drug. If marijuana is a medicine, let's treat it like one. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens