Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jul 2012 Source: Daily Courier, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2012 The Okanagan Valley Group of Newspapers Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/5NyOACet Website: http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/531 Author: Shannon Linden CLOCK TURNED BACK ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA A couple of years ago, I wrote a feature piece called Patients on Pot for North of 50 magazine. At the time I was simultaneously fascinated and horrified by the fact the federal government had legalized marijuana - sort of. Like so many federal initiatives, the move to give patients permission to purchase marijuana for medical use, was murky. Who exactly qualified? How did that person go about legally obtaining marijuana? How much pot could be bought? And if it was okay for particular patients, why not the people in general? I spent a long time researching and interviewed a number of people. The story is: In the summer of 2001, Health Canada implemented the Marijuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR), a program allowing, under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a person who suffers from severe and debilitating medical conditions to access marijuana. According to Health Canada, applicants for cannabis fell into two categories. The first included people requiring compassionate end-of-life care, those who suffered epileptic seizures, severe pain/and or muscle spasm from multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and disease, or arthritis, as well as pain, loss of appetite and severe nausea from cancer and HIV/AIDS infection. The second category was reserved for people with debilitating symptoms other than those described in the first category. A medical specialist was required to confirm a patient's diagnosis and testify conventional treatments had failed or were inappropriate. To be clear, this did not give recreational users freedom to roll fatties. Cannabis (marijuana) is a controlled substance and the growing and possessing of the product remains illegal-unless authorized by Health Canada. Prairie Plant Systems Inc., a Saskatoon-based company specializing in the growing, harvesting, and processing of plants for pharmaceutical products and research, runs the government grow-op in Flin Flon, Man. Patients can pay for their pot on credit cards, but shouldn't expect help from provincial plans. Marijuana is not approved as a therapeutic drug under the Foods and Drug Act. It can, however, be claimed as a medical expense for taxes. Here's how it used to end up in a patient's possession: Health Canada issued a month's supply of dried marijuana at a time, based upon the daily amount proposed by the medical practitioner, or the government sent a one-time-only shipment of seeds so a license holder could produce his or her allotted supply. Not comfortable growing your own? The government also issued Licenses to Produce on behalf of patients, to qualifying third parties, but this is where the rules of the game have changed. According to a recent news reports, Health Canada admitted it cannot properly track abuse of medical marijuana grow-op licences and therefore wants to eliminate issuing them. "With over 20,000 Canadians using medical marijuana and each of them theoretically being able to grow it in their own home, this creates a system that would require massive amounts of people to inspect thousands of homes," a Health Canada spokesman said. Rather than allowing people to grow their own medicinal marijuana or buy from someone else licensed to do so, the government wants patients to order directly and await delivery by mail. The move is aimed at deterring organized crime groups from obtaining licenses, after an RCMP report found that a third of trafficking and production cases could be chalked up to overproduction by licensed growers. So, it's back to buying from your federal dealer, a move advocates of medical marijuana oppose. Not only is it difficult to get a doctor to fill out the appropriate forms, the backlog is big and the wait long, and some say, not worth it. One woman I interviewed called the government supply "crap." A representative with Kelowna's BeKind Okanagan Growers and Compassion Club was more diplomatic. Claiming to specialize in specific strains of marijuana, Rob Callaway told me the BeKind club helps people get exactly what they need. "If you have epilepsy we suggest you smoke Sativa product. For spinal cord patients, Indica is good." "The general public only hears about the THC content," Callaway said. "But CBD (cannabidilo) is the anticonvulsant, anti-anxiety component that counters the psychotic affects of THC. Health Canada only offers one strain and it seems to be too low in CBD." How the government's new plan will affect patients remains to be seen, but with the feds set to become the sole supplier, this could be the last dance with Mary Jane for independent suppliers. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom