Pubdate: Fri, 14 Aug 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
Author: Mike Hager
Page: S2

HEALTH CANADA CRACKS DOWN ON POT-SHOP ADS

Public-Health Researcher Says It Seems a Different Standard Is Being 
Applied to Marijuana Than to Prescription-Drug Advertising

When the program guide for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival 
came out this past June, it included advertisements for four 
dispensaries that illegally sell marijuana. The dispensaries are 
among the hundred or so pot shops that have opened up throughout the 
city in the past several years.

Soon after Health Canada caught wind of the ads, the department 
contacted festival organizers and demanded the ads be pulled from 
both the online and print versions of the guide. A spokesman for 
Health Canada told the media that any business promoting the sale of 
marijuana could face a maximum penalty of $ 5-million, two years in 
prison, or both. The organizers, unaware they were illegal, 
immediately complied.

Prompted by complaints from citizens, Health Canada investigated the 
dispensary ads in the jazz festival guide and asked local radio 
station CKNW to pull spots featuring one of its hosts promoting one 
of the city's pot shop chains. In recent weeks, Health Minister Rona 
Ambrose announced that her department would move from its 
complaint-driven strategy to crack down on marijuana ads, which she 
says pose a considerable risk to public safety.

However, public-health researcher Barbara Mintzes says the 
department's history of monitoring and policing the advertising in 
the pharmaceutical industry has been ineffective. Her research found 
that since 2003, Health Canada received 359 complaints about 
direct-to- consumer pharmaceutical advertising and issued no fines or 
penalties in response to any of these complaints. The former 
University of British Columbia academic, now teaching at the 
University of Sydney, recently phoned The Globe and Mail from 
Australia to talk about Health Canada's mechanisms for dealing with 
dangerous or false marketing by drug manufacturers.

Health Canada has never issued a penalty to any drug company for 
violating advertising rules. Why is that?

What we found is this series of complaints that we were able to get 
all the information on and we looked at the complaint, the 
advertising and then what Health Canada's reply was. Essentially, we 
couldn't see any indication of a serious approach to regulation. The 
complaints were dismissed on a number of grounds, often technical grounds.

So how does the department deal with these advertising complaints?

If you look on the Health Canada website, just in general, this is 
across government agencies, but also specifically what they say is 
their approach to dealing with problems that arise is to try to 
negotiate with the company and try to come to some sort of agreement. 
So it seems to be a very soft approach to regulation. There isn't an 
indication that regulatory action is being taken, and one of the 
things that was frustrating ... what we found in the responses to 
those complaints was that the public-health concerns that needed to 
be raised in the letter tended not to be addressed at all in the responses.

What do you make of Health Canada's promise to crack down on anyone 
who advertises marijuana?

It certainly sounds to me like there's a different standard being 
applied than to the prescription drug advertising. There's a problem 
both in terms of natural health products and in terms of marijuana, 
as well, that is not being produced as a medicine. It's an issue that 
more has to do with the whole question of legalization of marijuana - 
whether our laws are really consistent with the social practices. It 
would be fantastic if Health Canada was proactively monitoring all 
forms of pharmaceutical prescription medicine advertising and 
promotion, but it's not only complaint-driven, but it's 
complaint-driven with a lot of the regulation delegated to external 
third parties.

How could regulation in this area improve?

A lot of this happens behind closed doors and it's very difficult to 
know what Health Canada has done to follow up if they have judged an 
advertising campaign to be illegal in contravention of our law.

This interview has been edited and condensed.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom