Pubdate: Thu, 10 Jul 2003
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2003 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Clifford Krauss

CANADA TO OFFER MARIJUANA TO MEDICAL PATIENTS

Toronto  - The Canadian government announced an interim plan today that 
will provide marijuana on a regular basis to several hundred people who are 
authorized to use the drug for medical reasons.

Coming six weeks after the federal government introduced a bill 
decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana and only days 
after it approved a trial "safe injection site" in Vancouver for 
intravenous drug users, the marijuana plan was one more sign that Ottawa is 
moving in a very different direction on drug policy from the Bush 
administration.

Thousands of Canadians already visit so-called "compassion clubs" in 
Vancouver and a few other cities, which distribute marijuana to those who 
come with a note from a doctor saying that the drug can help their 
condition. The police have occasionally entered some of the clinics and 
seized marijuana, but for the most part they function in the open.

The decision to allow the government to provide marijuana to people with 
illnesses ranging from cancer to arthritis to epilepsy was forced by a 
ruling in January by the Ontario Superior Court that federal marijuana 
access regulations were unconstitutional because they did not provide 
patients with a legal distribution system.

The government is appealing the ruling, meaning that the announcement may 
not stand.

"It was never our intention to sell the product," said Health Minister Anne 
McClellan, a skeptic of medical marijuana use.

The cabinet is divided on whether the government should be growing and 
distributing marijuana, an activity that is otherwise illegal. Ms. 
McClellan noted today that there is a lack of clinical evidence that 
marijuana has medicinal benefits. She added that the government will 
conduct its own clinical trials, scheduled to begin this fall, to gauge 
possible benefits.

The government says it intends to distribute the marijuana through doctors. 
Some officials of doctors associations have raised cautions about doing so 
before there is more study about the impact of marijuana use on people's 
health.

While the courts decide on the government's appeal, Ottawa will provide as 
many as 500 people, who have received letters from doctors saying the drug 
offered them medical benefits, with dried marijuana and marijuana seeds for 
their own planting.

The marijuana will cost patients almost $4 a gram, or about half the black 
market price.

The bags of seeds will cost about $15. The marijuana will come from an 
underground laboratory situated in an old mine in Flin Flon, Manitoba.

"This is a very small victory but a victory nevertheless," said Alison 
Myrden, a multiple sclerosis patient who appeared before television cameras 
today in front of the Parliament building holding a marijuana plant and 
smoking a marijuana cigarette.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart