Pubdate: Sat, 17 Dec 2011 Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU) Copyright: 2011 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/letters.html Website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274 Author: Thandi Fletcher, Postmedia News OTTAWA TO TIGHTEN RULES ON MEDICAL POT Canada's medical marijuana licensing system is vulnerable to abuse and needs to be tightened up, the health minister said after data emerged this week revealing a surge in possibly fraudulent applications. "We're aware that there are opportunities and risks of the system being abused," said Steve Outhouse, a spokesperson for Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, on Friday. Outhouse was speaking in response to a Postmedia News series on medical marijuana licensing and use in Canada. The figures showed, for example, that between 2008 and 2010 applications to Health Canada for medical marijuana based on severe arthritis claims jumped 2,400 per cent. There are two main changes Aglukkaq has proposed to prevent exploitation of the government's marijuana medical access regulations, Outhouse said. The first is to better educate doctors on how to prescribe medical marijuana, "because often doctors don't have all the information they need to make an informed decision," Outhouse said. "The other thing ... we're proposing is that people wouldn't grow in homes - that it would be available through a centralized location, whatever company would grow it, to treat it as much as any other drug." Outhouse said the minister is concerned about the safety risks and difficulty regulating homegrown marijuana. Under the proposed changes, Health Canada would remove itself as the arbiter in approving or rejecting applications to possess marijuana for medical reasons. Instead, doctors alone would sign off on requests. The Canadian Medical Association has said the proposals would put even greater pressure on doctors to control access to a largely untested and unregulated substance. Outhouse expects the new regulations to be finalized in 2012. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.