Pubdate: Sun, 27 Apr 2003
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326

Author: DEAN BEEBY, Canadian Press

CANADA TURNS TO NETHERLANDS AS POSSIBLE MODEL FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA POLICY

(CP) - Under pressure from the courts to reform its medical marijuana 
policy, Health Canada is considering a Dutch option in which marijuana 
would be made available to needy patients at the corner pharmacy.

Senior Health Canada officials visited the Netherlands in February to learn 
more about a new law that allows pharmacies to distribute government 
marijuana to patients with a doctor's prescription.

The law, which became effective March 17, makes the Netherlands the first 
country in the world to treat marijuana like an ordinary prescription drug.

"It's an option, like there are many options," said Beth Pieterson, a 
Health Canada official who met with her counterparts in Amsterdam from Feb. 
18 to 21.

Pieterson, director general of the drug strategy and controlled substances 
program, cautioned that no decisions have been made.

"Yes, we're looking at this but we're looking at everything else, too," she 
said in an interview from Ottawa.

Health Canada currently allows approved patients to smoke marijuana to 
relieve symptoms such as pain and nausea. But there's no direct legal 
supply of the substance, forcing patients to buy it on the street or from 
growers who cultivate plants obtained from non-legal sources.

In January, Justice Sidney Lederman of Ontario's Superior Court declared 
the Marijuana Medicinal Access Regulations unconstitutional.

"Laws which put seriously ill, vulnerable people in a position where they 
have to deal with the criminal underworld to obtain medicine they have been 
authorized to take violate the constitutional right to security of the 
person," Lederman wrote in a 40-page ruling.

He gave Ottawa until July 9 to fix the regulations or supply the pot 
itself. Health Canada has appealed the decision but the deadline remains.

"We are working towards having the appeal heard, with the hope that the 
deadline would change," said Pieterson.

But if Ottawa loses the appeal or can't change the deadline "we will be 
caught, and so we are looking at all our options."

The Dutch have also been promoting co-operation between the two countries 
on the issue of medical marijuana.

Willem Scholten, a Netherlands government official, visited Ottawa on March 
14 to discuss providing Dutch cannabis to Health Canada, among other issues.

"To us this is interesting too, because it gives some volume to our 
production," Scholten said in a Jan. 23 e-mail setting up the meeting. "Our 
growers have enough capacity."

The e-mail and related material was obtained under the Access to 
Information Act.

Health Canada currently has a $5.7-million contract with a Flin Flon, Man., 
company that is growing certified marijuana for clinical trials only, but 
there have been production problems.

The Netherlands has also contracted out its marijuana production to several 
growers, who must turn over all their crop to the government. Pharmacies 
are expected to stock the packaged product by September.

"Now that we've heard about the Netherlands developing product that will be 
available for sale in the Netherlands, there's nothing to say that our 
researchers would not be interested in looking at that particular product," 
said Cindy Cripps-Prawak, head of Canada's medical marijuana program.

But Pieterson said there is no plan at present for Health Canada to buy any 
Dutch dope, whether for patients or for researchers.

Some in Canada's medical marijuana community are pressing Health Canada to 
adopt the Dutch model as a quick and effective solution to the court quagmire.

"It appears to be a fairly feasible and well regulated system, worthy of 
possible emulation here in Canada," Eric Nash, a medical marijuana grower 
in Duncan, B.C., wrote to Pieterson and others on April 3.

"It would alleviate many of the problems patients face, not to mention the 
current considerable financial burden of court costs and judicial resources 
being overly burdened."

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has said he hopes to introduce 
legislation before the Commons' summer recess to decriminalize the 
possession of small amounts of recreational marijuana.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart