Pubdate: Thu, 29 Jan 2015
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2015 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Page: A10

HEALTH CANADA, GONE TO POT

Medical marijuana is a legal drug in Canada. True, it is only supposed
to be available to people with a doctor's prescription - but that can
be said about hundreds of other pharmaceuticals. What's more, since
there's no patent on pot, the easy-to-grow plant is really just a
generic prescription drug. In Canada, all sorts of generic drugs are
safely produced by drug companies, prescribed by doctors and sold by
pharmacists. The system works.

Except when it comes to medical marijuana. A decade and a half after
the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered the government to give access to
pot to those in medical need, the matter is still not settled. The
system is chaotic. Confusion reigns.

In response to the 2000 court decision, the government put in place
new rules that essentially allowed some patients to grow their own
drugs at home. In hindsight, this was probably not the ideal solution.
Last year, Ottawa began to replace that problematic approach with one
that sounds promising: Private businesses will be licensed to run
grow-ops, producing legal, regulated, medical marijuana.

It works for alcohol. It works for other drugs. So why is the
marijuana industry still in such a state of flux? And why is federal
oversight of it still such a mess?

Hundreds of companies have applied to produce medical marijuana. The
licensing process has been slow, confusing and opaque. And the promise
of riches for those who secure a government contract has opened the
doors to stock-market speculation not seen since the dot.com era.

As uncovered in a recent Globe and Mail investigation, CEN Biotech, a
U.S.-based company whose stock trades over the counter, made numerous
false claims to investors. The company, which says it wants to open
the country's biggest grow-op in southwestern Ontario, on multiple
occasions publicly misrepresented its licence status with Health
Canada and suggested it was being favoured by the government. Health
Canada's response has been to do nothing. The application is
apparently still in process. The regulator isn't regulating.

It should be possible - in fact, it should be easy - for medical
marijuana to be effectively regulated, overseen, produced, prescribed
and sold. It's what happens with every other drug. Why is Health
Canada finding this so difficult?
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MAP posted-by: Matt