Pubdate: Sun, 26 Jun 2005
Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB)
9fd-46b4-8268-3438eac7306b
Copyright: 2005 The Edmonton Journal
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134
Author: Norma Greenaway, CanWest News Service

FEDS MELLOW OUT ON RULES FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA PRESCRIBERS

OTTAWA -- Under fire by critics for providing a half-hearted, and overly
restrictive medical marijuana program, the federal government will unveil
new regulations this week designed to ease the onus on physicians and
patients.

A major change drops the demand that doctors agree in writing that the
benefits of smoking marijuana outweigh the risks to their patients. Doctors
had balked at being obliged to make such a statement in the absence of
marijuana being an approved therapeutic product.

"Applicants say it's hard to find doctors," Valerie Lasher, the manager of
Health Canada's medical marijuana program, said as she briefed The Citizen
on the changes. "What we have tried to do is streamline the regulations."

The new regime ends the requirement that one specialist, and in some cases
two, must sign the application. From now on, the signature of a general
practitioner will suffice, as long as in some defined cases, the physician
provides the name of a specialist the patient has seen in the last year.

In the case of patients with terminal illnesses, doctors signing their
applications for medical marijuana will no longer have to state the person
will die within a year. The doctor only has to state the patient is
suffering from a terminal illness.

The new regulations for the five-year-old program are slated to be published
Wednesday in the Canada Gazette.

Medical pot users, health professionals and politicians have slagged the
government program for everything from supplying bad weed to being too
restrictive about who qualifies as a licensed medical marijuana user or
grower. They charged the application forms were a "bureaucratic maze."

Lasher said building the program has been "challenging." But she refused to
apologize for the quality of the marijuana, which she said was research
grade and sells for $5 a gram, or half the blackmarket rate. Nor is she
apologetic about the progress made in implementing one of the world's only
government-run medical marijuana programs for people suffering from terminal
illnesses and such conditions as AIDS, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.

"It's evolving," she said. "We are in the vanguard on this. We didn't really
have anybody else to copy.

"This is marijuana for medical purposes," she said. "It's not about
legalization. It's not about decriminalization. It's not about recreation.
It's about giving people access to a product that they honestly believe is
the best, if not the only treatment for them."

The Canadian Medical Association has resisted the program from Day 1 on
grounds marijuana is an unproven therapy and an illegal drug.

Dr. Albert Schumacher, president of the CMA, said he's eager to see the new
regulations when they are published this week.

"We have a lot of concerns with the way the physician was sandwiched into
the process for something that was unproven therapy," he said.

He predicted the vast majority of Canadian doctors will continue to refuse
to sign medical marijuana applications until there is evidence pot has
therapeutic value. 
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