Pubdate: Fri, 13 May 2016
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2016 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Mike Hager
Page: A5

VETERANS' POT-PRESCRIPTION RATES RAISE FLAGS

Health Officials Are Looking into the Practice of Some 
Former-Soldiers' Groups Getting Kickbacks From Medical-Marijuana Producers

The recent explosion in the number of veterans being reimbursed for 
medical marijuana, flagged by the Auditor-General in a critical 
report, is being fuelled by groups in the Atlantic provinces 
connecting former soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress 
disorder with licensed growers hungry for patients.

The practice has raised flags at Health Canada, where officials have 
looked into efforts by some veterans groups to leverage kickbacks 
from medical producers in exchange for providing them with patients.

Veterans are part of the only publicly funded plan in the country for 
medical marijuana. Groups that represent them offer a small but 
lucrative patient base for Canada's two dozen licensed producers, 
which are fighting for their share of a competitive market while 
facing pressure from an illegal dispensary sector rapidly spreading 
east from Vancouver.

Auditor-General Michael Ferguson, in a report last week, found the 
number of veterans with pot prescriptions has increased 11 times to 
more than 1,300 registered patients since Ottawa overhauled its 
previous home-growing regime just over two years ago.

These former soldiers are covered for up to 10 grams a day, three 
times more cannabis than the average Canadian patient is authorized 
to use, and Veterans Affairs Canada said it reimburses them for 
anywhere from $6 to $14 a gram. The average price paid by patients of 
the system is $8.14 a gram, according to official data from last December.

Veterans Affairs paid out $12.1 million for these prescriptions from 
April to December of last year and, by the end of this fiscal year, 
they could make up a third of all drug payouts for veterans. The 
department, which announced an ongoing review of the ballooning costs 
earlier this year, has accepted the Auditor-General's recommendations 
to create stricter controls on the program.

Buried in the Auditor-General's report was the fact that 53 per cent 
of the more than 1,300 veterans that got prescriptions last year did 
so from just four doctors. The report did not specify where those 
doctors practise. Veterans in Atlantic Canada represent about 15 per 
cent of all former soldiers, but nearly two-thirds of veterans using 
medical marijuana live in the Eastern provinces.

This trend has been fuelled in large part by groups such as New 
Brunswick-based Marijuana For Trauma (MFT), co-founded by veteran 
Fabian Henry. Mr. Henry said he has organized hundreds of former 
soldiers suffering from PTSD to get reimbursed for their medical pot, 
and has no problem asking licensed producers to share a cut of sales 
or a set fee for referring such patients.

His non-profit group will continue raising funds this way, he said, 
in order to offer its more than 500 members other holistic therapies 
not covered by the government, such as hyperbaric oxygen treatments, 
cannabis education, cooking classes, peer support and spousal programs.

"MFT has set up a program for healing the body, mind and soul," Mr. 
Henry said via e-mail. "Until there is a system to provide a ... 
holistic healing option for treatment, we will continue as we are."

There are few guidelines that cover the relationship between 
patients, doctors, clinics specializing in pot prescriptions and 
growers, which, unlike traditional drug companies, sell their 
products directly to consumers.

Health Canada does not approve marijuana as a drug or medicine, but 
is compelled to regulate it by the courts, which have consistently 
ruled that Canadians must have reasonable access to medical marijuana.

After Mr. Henry told The Globe and Mail last June that his group 
routinely asks licensed producers to share a cut of sales or a set 
fee for referring patients, Health Canada said it was "actively 
looking into the issue" of whether such kickbacks present a conflict 
of interest for the growers.

The agency issued a bulletin to the producers warning them to "take 
care to avoid any situation that could compromise the health and 
safety of patients; for example, giving or offering inappropriate 
direct or indirect payments or inducements to any individual or organization."

Despite Mr. Henry's public comments, department spokesman Sean Upton 
said in a statement e-mailed last week that Health Canada "did not 
have any reason to find that any licensed producers were not in 
compliance with the regulations."

"If Health Canada became aware of a licensed producer engaged in the 
practice of paying for referrals, the department would investigate 
and take the appropriate compliance and enforcement action, if 
warranted," Mr. Upton wrote.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom