Pubdate: Tue, 09 Feb 2016
Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2016 The StarPhoenix
Contact:  http://thestarphoenix.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400
Author: Les MacPherson
Page: A3

NO ONE KNOWS HOW MANY ARE GETTING MEDICAL MARIJUANA

I wrote last week a column about marijuana that contained bad
information.

I had heard complaints from three different people that they could not
find a doctor in Saskatoon to prescribe medical marijuana. I have
since learned that maybe they weren't seeing the right doctors.

Some doctors still will not write prescriptions for the once-forbidden
herb, but plenty of others have come around. Saskatoon-based supplier
CanniMed alone has filled prescriptions written by 290 Saskatchewan
doctors, 136 of them in Saskatoon, at last count. This would not
include doctors whose prescriptions are filled by other licensed
suppliers, of which there are more than 20. So, medical marijuana is
far from impossible to get here, as I incorrectly reported.

Exactly how much medical marijuana is prescribed to how many people in
Saskatchewan, no one seems to know. The provincial health department
does not keep track because marijuana is not approved under the
provincial drug formulary. The federal health department could compile
those numbers, I was told, but has not felt the need to do so. My
impression is they don't want to know.

Oh, and what I am calling marijuana prescriptions are not really
prescriptions, strictly speaking. They officially are called "medical
documents." Almost always they are filled online and delivered by mail
or courier. The retail price, not including taxes or delivery, ranges
from about $50 to $90 for 10 pharmaceutical-grade grams, depending on
variety. That's about 25 to 50 per cent less than quality, B.C. bud on
the black market, but readily available without a prescription.

Another distinction is the packaging. There are no Ziploc sandwich
bags in the medical marijuana supply chain. It comes to the patient in
10-gram bottles that, perversely, declare on the label: "Not an
approved drug in Canada."

But how can this be? How can a drug, prescribed by medical doctors,
supplied by highly regulated, federally licensed producers, not be
approved in Canada?

It has to do with procedure. While other pharmaceuticals are only
approved after rigorous studies and clinical trials, medical marijuana
was sanctioned by the courts. It goes back to a judgment in 2000 from
an Ontario trial court, upheld by the court of appeal, in the case of
R. vs. Parker. Charged with possession, the accused argued that
marijuana helped control his epilepsy. The court found that
prohibition put his health in jeopardy and thus contravened his right
to security of the person. The ruling effectively legalized medical
marijuana in Canada.

Federal authorities have since been scrambling to comply. While they
stumbled around, so-called compassion clubs and storefront
dispensaries took up the slack. These still are welcome in cities such
as Vancouver and Victoria. In Saskatoon, however, dispensary
proprietors are facing criminal charges. It all depends where you
live. That's not supposed to matter if the right to equality under the
law means anything.

Availability of medical marijuana through legal channels will not help
the case for extralegal dispensaries, at least not in jurisdictions
like this one, where they still are prosecuted. The legal
justification for unlicensed dispensaries was the government's failure
to get up to speed.

Health authorities remain divided, and justifiably so. Some are
reluctant to endorse for therapeutic purposes what they regard as an
illegal, unhealthy and malodorous, recreational drug. Some are leery
of a drug that has not met the same standards for approval as every
other prescription pharmaceutical. Some cannot abide the inhalation of
smoke for any reason. Suppliers are responding with vaporizers and
edibles.

A further complication is the looming promise from Justin Trudeau's
Liberal government to legalize marijuana possession. In Saskatoon, it
looks like police want to arrest as many people as they can on
marijuana offences before it's made legal. In Vancouver and Victoria,
police are finding other, more serious crimes to enforce.

What legalization will do to the emergent medical marijuana regime
remains to be seen. I don't think a lot of medicinal brandy was
prescribed anymore after the prohibition on liquor was lifted. Medical
marijuana suppliers likely will be first in line for licences to
produce for the legal, recreational market, if it ever arrives. To get
a handle on medical marijuana took Ottawa more than a decade. There is
no reason to believe legalization will be any less protracted.
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MAP posted-by: Matt