Pubdate: Thu, 10 Jul 2003
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2003 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Clifford Krauss, New York Times

CANADA READY TO DEAL POT

To Meet Court Order, It Will Provide To Ill

Toronto -- The Canadian government announced Wednesday an interim plan 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.

Wednesday's 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 Wednesday's 
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. McClellan 
said Wednesday that there is a lack of clinical evidence that marijuana has 
medicinal benefits.

The government says it intends to distribute the marijuana through doctors.
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