Pubdate: Fri, 24 May 2002 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2002 The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456 Author: Tracey Tyler Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada) PATIENTS TAKE POT FIGHT TO COURT Federal Access Regulations Dubbed 'A Cruel Hoax' Seven Canadians who use or distribute medical marijuana are asking the courts to strike down federal access regulations that are "a cruel hoax" and to order Ottawa to provide them with hundreds of kilograms of pot grown in an abandoned Manitoba mine. The regulations, set up to provide sick people with legal access to marijuana, are unduly restrictive and have made obtaining the drug difficult because the government is demanding medical declarations that few doctors will sign, the group of seven told a Queen's Park news conference yesterday. Catherine Devries, 43, of Kitchener said she uses marijuana to combat nausea and loss of appetite resulting from a condition known as arachnoiditis, which affects the nerve endings in her spinal column and has left her with loss of bowel function and hooked to an intravenous line 16 to 20 hours a day. Unable to obtain the necessary declarations from a medical specialist, she has been forced to turn to black-market marijuana, which at times has been so contaminated she has ended up in hospital, she said. "Seriously ill Canadians are going on safari looking for drug dealers in a black market to provide them with medicine," said Osgoode Hall law school professor Alan Young, one of four lawyers representing the group. The government "will do nothing without a court breathing down their neck," so "we've decided to strike back," Young said. In a notice of application filed with the Ontario Superior Court, the seven are asking that the federal government be ordered to distribute marijuana harvested from an abandoned copper mine in Flin Flon, where it was grown under a $5.7 million government contract for intended use in clinical trials. Health Minister Anne McLellan recently said the marijuana was too impure to use. The government could not obtain standardized seeds from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, so it had to rely on seedlings culled from more than 185 strains seized in Canadian police raids. Nevertheless, Young said the supply is probably among the safest his clients have known. They are asking the court to strike down the regulations on the basis that they violate guarantees of fundamental justice under the Charter of Rights. If that happens, the law making it a criminal offence to possess marijuana would also be wiped off the books, Young said. That's because in July, 2000, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered the federal government to construct a viable regulatory system within a year or the possession offence would become invalid. The system that followed was "a cruel hoax," Young said. The government came up with a set of rules that say that, unless a person wanting to use medical marijuana is terminally ill and expected to die within a year, he or she must supply declarations from as many as two medical specialists, who are required to state there are more benefits than risks in the patient using pot and to recommend a dosage. The Canadian Medical Association, at least two of its provincial counterparts and the insurer for Canadian doctors have warned physicians against signing the declarations. However, Andrew Swift, a health department spokesperson, said some doctors have signed. Since the regulations were introduced last year, 255 people have been granted permission to use medical marijuana. Some are terminally ill and needed no declarations, but others did, he said. In an affidavit filed with the court, Dr. Philip Berger, a Toronto family physician who treats AIDS patients, said requiring declarations from specialists "makes little sense" for HIV patients, who tend to be treated by "a small cadre" of family doctors. "I do not know what specialists I would refer my patients to," he said. The requirement that doctors recommend a marijuana dosage "is impossible to comply with," Berger said, and it would be "reckless" to do so, given variations in cannabis strains and potency. - --- MAP posted-by: Alex