Pubdate: Fri, 06 Jul 2012
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Jessica Hume

HEALTH CANADA SOWS THE WEED OF DISCONTENT

After admitting it is ill-equipped to track abuses of the medical
marijuana grow-op licenses it issues, Health Canada says it wants to
eliminate them altogether and replace them with a mail-order system.

"With over 20,000 Canadians using medical marijuana and each of them
theoretically being able to grow it in their own home, this creates a
system that would require massive amounts of people to inspect
thousands of homes," a spokesman told Sun News.

"The new system will be designed to eliminate as much abuse as
possible while making sure patients who have been prescribed medical
marijuana are able to access it."

While false reports surfaced Thursday that Health Canada had no record
of a single inspection of any grow-op it licensed, Johanne Bealieu,
director of the Medical Marijuana Access Program (MMAP), scrambled to
tell Sun News it has indeed conducted inspections.

"We do about 160 inspections a year," she said. "We did 75 inspections
of license holders under the MMAP in 2010."

Regardless, Health Canada wants to stop issuing the two classes of
licenses to grow -- one gives the medical marijuana user permission to
grow; the other allows an individual to produce the drug on behalf of
the user) -- and replace it with a mail-order system.

The new program would eliminate licenses from getting into the hands
of organized crime groups, Beaulieu said.

An RCMP report found roughly one-third of marijuana trafficking and
production cases involved licensed individuals growing more than the
allowable amount.

Russell Barth, a medical marijuana user and activist, believes the
regulation of the drug is a necessarily complex issue and that any
proposed solution should reflect that.

Simply eliminating all licenses because a few have been abused by
gangs will likely not deter criminal organizations, which produce and
distribute drugs regardless of licenses, and will hurt the people the
program was intended to help.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt