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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom