Pubdate: Thu, 29 Aug 2002
Source: Westender (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 WestEnder
Contact:  http://www.westender.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1243
Author: Brian Peterson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

WISHY-WASHY MCLELLAN SETS BACK MEDICAL MARIJUANA CAUSE

Awww, fuck! Here we go again. Medical cannabis users must be getting ready 
to roll over into their graves with depression over the Aug. 13 police raid 
that closed the Toronto Compassion Centre which supplied 1,300 patients, 
followed by Health Minister Anne McLellan's gelatinous performance in front 
of an audience of hostile doctors at the Canadian Medical Association 
annual meeting last week.

Suddenly cornered by a totally misinformed doctor who said smoking one 
joint is worse than smoking 10 cigarettes--show me the bodies, doc; I count 
4 million dead tobacco addicts last year--McLellan went to pieces and 
confessed she's 'uncomfortable' about the idea of patients smoking pot to 
relieve pain or the government supplying any of the 250 kilograms of weed 
already grown in a Flin Flon mine shaft until clinical trials are completed.

She wasn't so uncomfortable a couple of years ago when as Justice Minister 
she didn't appeal the Ontario Court of Appeal's ruling that made it legal 
for terminally ill people to use marijuana for pain relief. She created a 
special exemption in the criminal law and then Health Minister Allan Rock 
clumsily spent $5.7-million to grow research grade marijuana with the 
intention to provide it to the ailing while clinical trials proceeded 
McLellan's wishwash earned her applause from the biased Canadian Medical 
Association and their insurers who are dead-set against prescribing 
cannabis, yet inexplicably put in the unwanted gatekeeper position. But in 
the following days Rock was publicly disagreeing with her while McLellan 
and her staff were in full damage control mode asserting there was no 
change in government policy.

What sad painful horseshit. Numerous bumblefucks have meant serious delays 
in producing a 'research grade' crop of weed. Which means Canadians who can 
legally smoke marijuana will probably expire before Health Canada ever 
releases any of the dope they're currently sitting on.

Nine of those Canadians led by the founder of the Toronto Compassion Centre 
Alan Young will be in Ontario's Superior Court on Sept. 19 and 20 to demand 
access to that marijuana.

I felt determined to talk directly to McLellan and invite her to defend her 
claim that she is not insensitive to the 800-odd Canadians who've dutifully 
filled out their forms and wheedled signatures from the few physicians with 
a conscience and are still stuck buying on the pricey unsure black market. 
The closest I got to her was Special Assistant to the Minister Alex Swann. 
He reiterated that there had been no change in policy and they were 
continuing to work with Prairie Plant Systems to produce a research grade crop.

He got very vague when I inquired what THC level would constitute research 
grade. When I inquired if clinical trials would begin immediately when that 
supply was secured he admitted that not only did he not know but that the 
clinical trials had not been designed yet. To which I impatiently sighed, 
'Do you understand why the community of terminally ill are so mistrustful 
of Health Canada? I get calls from guys like Jim Wakeford who are 
alternately being robbed of their crop by the police, then called common 
criminals because of this incompetence. They're pissed off because they've 
been given a right without a remedy and they see their painful deaths being 
hastened as a result.'

Swann promised to get to back to me with more info. And the next day Paige 
Kovach from Health Canada called but was also unable to reveal the 
specifics of the clinical trials Health Canada would require to release 
their supply. She did e-mail back a list of three clinical trials currently 
underway (or completed), funded by the Health Canada/Canadian Institute of 
Health Research Medical Marijuana Research Program. The MMRP has been 
established as a five-year research plan with a supposed funding of up to 
$7.5 million. However, there was little in the material that led me to 
believe research is proceeding with the urgency a pharmaceutical concern 
would apply to the approval of a potentially profitable new drug.

It looks more like the kind of drag ass stall step perfected by DEA 
ass-kissers and brainlocked Chretien Liberals.

If I were a spiteful person I'd wish a painful wasting disease on the loved 
ones of all of them in the sincere hope they might awaken to the urgency 
some of us already feel about a badly mishandled issue that should've been 
settled long long ago.
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MAP posted-by: Tom