Pubdate: Tue, 01 Nov 2011 Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB) Copyright: 2011 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/letters.html Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66 PARANOID ON POT Eleven years ago next month, Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice Darlene Acton handed down a landmark ruling that gave Calgary multiple sclerosis sufferer Grant Krieger the right to grow and cultivate marijuana. She noted the absurdity in the federal law of the day that gave ill Canadians suffering from severe illness the right to possess marijuana but no legal outlet in which to buy it. A year later, the federal government made it possible for sick Canadians to buy medicinal marijuana through legal means. Yet, to this day, it remains almost impossible to find a physician who will prescribe it. Proposed changes on how Health Canada regulates access to the pot could make matters even worse for medicinal marijuana users. Rather than serving as the ultimate arbiter in approving or rejecting applications, the federal department would download the responsibility on doctors, who are justifiably reluctant to do so for ethical and legal reasons. Although the Canadian Medical Association code of ethics requires doctors to "consider first the well-being of the patient," it also demands that they take "all reasonable steps to prevent harm" - the modern interpretation of the classic "do-no-harm" principle of the ancient Hippocratic oath. Yet, research by Health Canada on the safety and efficacy of medicinal marijuana was terminated by the Harper Conservatives in 2006, which, among other things, could have answered basic questions such as appropriate dosages. The government believes clinical research is best undertaken by the private sector, but critics say pharmaceutical companies have no monetary interest in doing so, and that research agencies refuse to touch it because smoking cannabis is seen as an unsafe method of delivery. Critics fear the government wants out because the issue doesn't square with its tough-on-crime agenda. Asking doctors to sign off on a drug that has not gone through the normal regulatory review process also places them at legal risk. The inability of the government to adequately deal with the issue has created a perverse system that makes medicinal marijuana legal only in name. The federal government effectively wants doctors to prescribe an unregulated drug that can be dangerous to those with psychosis, schizophrenia and heart disease. It places doctors in an untenable quandary. The proposed changes to the program include removing the rights of patients to grow their own supply of marijuana or to appoint designated growers, forcing users to get their pot from a licensed commercial producer instead. Ostensibly, this is to make the program less complicated for seriously ill Canadians. The only way this could work would be to give some form of legislated protection for doctors, yet that still wouldn't solve their ethical issues, and it would expose them to users who simply want pot for recreational use. Doctors shouldn't be the gatekeepers for the government's ineptitude. it's not fair to them or the more than 12,000 Canadians authorized to possess medical marijuana, for whom the process is more cloudy than ever. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt