Pubdate: Wed, 16 May 2001
Source: Guelph Mercury (CN ON)
Website: http://www.guelphmercury.com/
Contact:  2001 Guelph Mercury Newspapers Limited
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

DOCTORS IN SUPPORT OF LEGALIZING POT

The Canadian Medical Association Journal is no ordinary newsletter. It is 
not in the habit of giving free expression to radical, off-the-wall 
opinions simply to provoke discussion.

No, by most accounts, the Canadian Medical Association Journal is staid and 
cautious. It is conservative, given over mainly to research reports. It is 
solemn to the point of nausea.

So when it proposes (as it does in an editorial this week) that marijuana 
possession be decriminalized, that's news. When it backs this stance by 
arguing that the social and legal fallout of being arrested for marijuana 
possession far outweighs the minimal health effects of the drug's moderate 
use, that's even bigger news.

Contrast this stance with the overcautious pussy-footing that accompanied 
Health Canada's announcement last month on the subject. It suggested 
absolutely no big break with the traditional prejudice against marijuana 
and marijuana-users. As announced by Health Minister Allan Rock, new rules 
would allow certain people -- those who are either very ill or close to 
death -- to inhale. Otherwise, marijuana would continue to be treated as an 
illegal substance for all other citizens.

Specifically, if you can produce convincing evidence that you'll be dead 
within a year, Rock  (in his generosity) will let you have legal access to 
reefers, if you can find and pay for them. If  you are having severe pain, 
nausea, anorexia, seizures, spasms or you are weak from diseases  such as 
cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis or severe arthritis, however, legal 
availability becomes somewhat more difficult. To earn the right to smoke 
pot, you have to present a statement from a medical specialist declaring 
that conventional treatments have been applied and have been found wanting.

What bureaucratic nonsense, says the Canadian Medical Association Journal. 
Editor Dr. John Hoey says marijuana is a relatively innocuous drug whose 
main source of harm to the average user is in the tar it contains. In that 
respect, it is on par with tobacco. But in another important respect, it is 
not on par with tobacco, for it contains absolutely no nicotine.

Of course, the Canadian Medical Association Journal does not set Canadian 
government policy. Rock does, and he's clearly committed to the notion that 
marijuana is a vile, dangerously addictive substance that, when bought and 
smoked, normally transforms ordinary citizens into drug-crazed criminals 
and suppliers into thieves.

That notion may be wrong, but it's going to keep the police and the courts 
busy for the  foreseeable future on its behalf.

That's too bad, for as Hoey points out, even a small, almost medically 
harmless stash of  marijuana can easily (and unjustifiably) result in "that 
indelible social taboo: a criminal record."

An influential medical journal tells the federal government to lighten up.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager