Pubdate: Sat, 14 Jun 2014
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Douglas Quan
Page: A6
Referenced: http://mapinc.org/url/Cmo8twN6

MORE POT RULES IN WORKS

Health Canada proposes reporting on doctors, patients and amounts

Canada's health regulator is proposing new rules to prevent abuse of
the medical marijuana system by patients and doctors.

Health Canada is proposing that licensed medical marijuana suppliers
be required to periodically hand over to provincial authorities
records showing the names of doctors who have authorized marijuana
use, as well as basic information about their patients, including the
quantities prescribed to them and period of use.

These measures, officials say, will help to monitor for and prevent
doctors from prescribing "high dosages" and patients from going to
more than one doctor to get prescriptions ("double doctoring") or
going to more than one producer.

According to Health Canada, dried marijuana, like other narcotics used
for medical purposes, "is susceptible to misuse and abuse," which is
why more oversight is needed.

Officials say the proposed rules are in keeping with existing
provincial and territorial prescription-monitoring programs for
controlled substances.

John Conroy, a B.C. lawyer who has represented medical-marijuana
patients, said Friday while it appears federal regulators are trying
to bring medical marijuana in line with other prescribed drugs in
terms of record-keeping, he worries the rules could "further dampen or
add to the reluctance on the part of doctors to authorize or
prescribe" marijuana.

And unlike other controlled substances, marijuana doesn't have a
"lethal dose," so the concerns about abuse aren't as serious, he said.

Under the proposed rules, licensed marijuana producers would have to
submit the required information to provincial medical-licensing
authorities on a semi-annual basis.

Health Canada anticipates the cost to the industry to prepare and send
the records would be about $423,000 annually or almost $3 million over
the next decade.

Representatives of two licensed producers said Friday the requirements
will be an extra burden on them but they understand what Health Canada
is trying to do.

"This is simply reporting that will reflect that doctors are doing
things the right way," said Dr. John Gillis, chief medical adviser to
Tweed Marijuana Inc.

"We want to do things by the book."

Neil Closner, CEO of Med-Releaf Corp., said in an email that while the
company is a strong advocate of patients' right to privacy, "we
support efforts by Health Canada and the professional licensing bodies
to provide necessary oversight of their members with respect to any
wrongdoing related to the prescribing of medical cannabis."

Rules governing medical marijuana in Canada underwent a major overhaul
earlier this year.

Under the old regime, medical marijuana patients could grow their own
marijuana with a personal-production licence or obtain it from
designated growers.

But authorities complained that they were often growing more than they
were permitted and that the system was rife with abuse, prompting
federal regulators to switch April 1 to a new system that restricts
production to licensed commercial producers.

As of Friday, there were 13 licensed companies, according to the
Health Canada website.

Since Canada allowed people with serious illness access to marijuana
for medical use in 2001, the number of users has ballooned to almost
40,000.

The public has until July 13 to tell Health Canada what it thinks
about the proposed rules.
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MAP posted-by: Matt