Pubdate: Thu, 26 Dec 2002 Source: View Magazine (Hamilton, CN ON) Copyright: 2002 View Magazine Contact: http://www.viewmag.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2393 Author: Paul Bobier HIGH TIME The recreational use of marijuana remains illegal in Canada, despite federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon's suggestion that the law be reconsidered. An Ontario Court of Appeal ruling in 2000 said some seriously ill people should be allowed to possess marijuana for medicinal purposes, and Health Canada then began a process for licencing the growing and owning of medical cannabis. Canadian Health Minister Anne McLellan isn't comfortable on the issue of medical marijuana; nor are many medical doctors. So far, Health Canada has issued several hundred permits for patients to legally possess this substance, but some of those applying for them called the process time-consuming and hard, while those receiving them found getting a supply isn't very easy either. By last October, Health Canada had approved over 200 small growing operations, but was reluctant to distribute a 200 kilogram supply of low grade marijuana legally grown in an abandoned Manitoba mine site. Those opposed to medical cannabis believe it's still an unknown substance that hasn't been through enough clinical trials. One Kitchener-Waterloo family physician told me that there's not yet a reference manual he can consult to get an idea of what the dosage-response rates would be for such cigarettes. And then, there remains the question of substance purity, which could vary greatly among these cigarettes. With most other prescriptions, doctors can consult a reference manual to estimate how their patients may respond to a given drug's dosage, and a uniform substance purity is more assured. In late September, Globe and Mail reporter Gay Abbate mentioned that doctors were reluctant to sign patients' forms for marijuana, as medical associations and insurance companies providing malpractice policies have warned them that its potential health risks could lead to legal actions being taken against them. The British Lung Foundation claims cannabis smoking is worse to lung health than smoking tobacco, and that smoking three marijuana joints a day could be just as bad as smoking 20 tobacco cigarettes. The foundation's report, issued this November, said tar from marijuana has 50 per cent more carcinogens than tobacco tar, and that persistent marijuana smokers risk lung cancer, emphysema, bronchitis, and other illnesses. The British Lung Foundation also reported that in the 1960s, a typical marijuana joint had around 10 milligrams of the psychoactive ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), and the average joint now has 150 milligrams of THC. "We have the evidence of cannabis and its dangers," Dr. Richard Russell, spokesman for the British Lung Foundation noted in the November 16 Globe. "What we really want to avoid is the situation we had in the 1930s, '40s and '50s with cigarettes, where doctors were recommending tobacco as being good for you." In both Britain and Canada, clinical studies on medicinal marijuana use are now being conducted with some patients. The Canadian study will use a cannabis supply provided by the United States National Institute on Drug Abuse, to the objection of American drug policy director John Walters -- who opposes both medicinal marijuana programs and the general legalization of cannabis. However, marijuana has also been claimed as useful to some patients in countering inflammation, reducing pain and nausea, and in stimulating the appetite. Last September, ten seriously ill patients launched a constitutional challenge against the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations and part of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, advocating the law was too strict for the medicinal use of cannabis. Arguing their case was lawyer Alan Young, who told an Ontario Superior Court judge that the present rules presented too much red tape for his clients to have legal access to medical cannabis. Young also said the government's delay in establishing a pure supply of cannabis has forced his clients to grow their own or buy impure supplies on the black market. Opposing Young's position was Justice Department lawyer Harvey Frankel, who noted Health Canada's present rules ensure that doctors decide who can legally use marijuana, and weakening regulations would increase the number of people using various medical excuses to smoke cannabis. Frankel told the court, "For any ailment known to mankind, someone's claimed marijuana is good for it." Frankel believed the average user of medicinal marijuana smokes five grams per day, and that missing personal information or failure to provide photographs were the main reasons in holding up medical marijuana permits - --not a lack of doctors' approvals. Earlier this year, the Toronto-based Centre for Addiction and Mental Health released the results of its survey of both the medical and non-medical use of marijuana by Ontario residents. 2,406 adults were surveyed in 2000 for this purpose. Men (at 14.3 per cent of those surveyed) were almost twice as likely as women (at 7.7 per cent of those surveyed) to have reported smoking marijuana in 1999. Reported marijuana use was 28.2 per cent among those 18 to 29 years, 12.3 per cent among those 30 to 39 years, 6.4 per cent among those 40 to 49 years, 2.9 per cent among those 50 to 64 years, and 0 per cent for those 65 years and older. Of respondents who were married, 6.2 per cent reported marijuana use in 1999, while reported marijuana use was 26.4 per cent among those who were never married. In Canada, marijuana use was made illegal in 1923. 30 years ago, the Le Dain Commission recommended its use be legalized. This year, a Canadian Senate committee came out with a report advising that smoking marijuana be legal for anybody over 16 years of age, and that there be a regulated system for producing and selling it. And just last week, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Roger Grimes told reporters that marijauna should not only be legalized, but that the government should treat it like alcohol and levy taxes from its sale. Against these Senate recommendations are those who feel more liberal cannabis use by the public will lead to more users of the harder drugs. According to Report on Business magazine's November edition, around 800 tons of cannabis moves around Canada every year, half of it being grown in people's homes. Needed in the national marijuana debate is more information on cannabis' total effects on human health, and that may take years to get. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart