Pubdate: Wed, 01 Aug 2001
Source: Guardian, The (Canada)
Copyright: 2001 The Guardian, Charlottetown Guardian Group Incorporated
Contact:  http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/174
Author: Jason Smith

MARIJUANA USE BY PATIENTS HAS MANY DOCTORS CONCERNED

Island doctors may soon be teaching some of their patients how to grow 
marijuana, according to the P.E.I. Medical Society.

Ottawa's recent decision to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes 
came into effect Monday and has many Island doctors concerned, says society 
president Richard Wedge.

"We have concerns as physicians being the gatekeepers of patients who are 
requesting this and doing work on behalf of Health Canada," Wedge said. "We 
also have concerns as far as dosage and the quality of the drug being used."

For the most part, Health Canada will not be handing out joints to 
qualified patients but will be giving them the legal right to grow and use 
marijuana.

When a patient requests a licence to grow marijuana, the doctor has to 
submit a form to Health Canada explaining the patient's diagnosis and why 
marijuana and not another form of treatment should be used.

Wedge said Health Canada hasn't provided doctors with enough information on 
how to prescribe marijuana.

"Most physicians wouldn't know how to prescribe it. This is for people who 
are growing their own marijuana and a lot of people who are terminally ill 
obviously don't know how to grow marijuana so there are a number of 
practical concerns as well."

Wedge said the list of possible candidates ranges from those with a 
terminal illness, to anyone with a disease who can make a case that they 
should be included.

Health Canada would have the final say.

Wedge is not convinced that marijuana is an effective treatment since to 
his knowledge there's never been a clinical trial stating that it is.

"Those trials are getting underway now and we should have waited for those 
trials to be done before anything was done. But after saying that the 
reason that it's being done now is because the Supreme Court of Canada told 
them (Health Canada) to do it."

On Dec. 10 , 1997, an Ontario court ruled that people should be able to 
have access to medical treatment without fear of arrest. The ruling came 
from a case involving Terrence Parker, an epileptic who claimed marijuana 
was the only way he could keep his seizures under control.

Wedge said he received a call on Monday from a doctor concerned that he 
might be charged for trafficking. Wedge hopes Health Canada will sort out 
some of the confusion and concerns soon by releasing some guidelines to the 
medical community on prescribing marijuana.

He doesn't expect to see marijuana in the hands of patients for a few months.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom