Pubdate: Mon, 14 Apr 2008
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2008 Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.edmontonsun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author: Dean Beeby, Canadian Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

MEDICAL DOPE USERS OWE FEDS MONEY

OTTAWA -- Medical marijuana users are on the hook for more than 
$500,000 in unpaid bills for government-certified weed, raising 
questions about the effectiveness of Health Canada's troubled dope program.

Newly disclosed statistics show that Health Canada has sent final 
notices -- and sometimes dispatched a collection agency as well -- to 
462 registered users since government marijuana first became available in 2003.

"Most of the 462 individuals who have received a letter regarding 
their accounts in arrears have had their shipment ceased," department 
spokesman Paul Duchesne said in an e-mail.

The unpaid bills, totalling $554,255 as of Dec. 31, have tripled in 
value in the last two years and have resulted in some seriously ill 
citizens returning to the black market for their medication. The 
marijuana distribution service was specifically designed to give 
patients a legal alternative to street dope.

Officials have handed 29 overdue accounts to collection agencies who 
so far have been able to recoup just $2,000.

The statistics, acquired through the Access to Information Act and 
questions to Health Canada, suggest a deeply flawed program as the 
number of users in arrears has soared to about two-thirds of all 739 
patients licensed to buy government dope.

A series of adverse court rulings since 2000 forced Health Canada 
into the medical marijuana business.

The program licenses certified users who have been prescribed 
cannabis by their doctors, and allows them to grow their own, have 
someone grow it for them, or buy directly from the department.

Health Canada has paid Prairie Plant Systems Inc. more than $10 
million to cultivate a strain of pot in a mine shaft in Flin Flon, 
Man. Accredited patients can then buy the dope, with a THC content -- 
the active ingredient -- of 12.5%, for $5 a gram.

The department has said it plans eventually to end its licensing of 
homegrown dope, forcing all medical users to buy their supplies 
directly from the government, perhaps through pharmacy distribution. 
Prairie Plant Systems now couriers the weed in 30-gram packets 
directly to users.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom