What role should doctors play in the control of marijuana? Health Canada in a news release late last year announced proposals for "new Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations," suggesting that "changes improve public safety [and] maintain patient access."1 The document goes on to suggest that "the proposed new Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations aim to treat marihuana as much as possible like any other narcotic used for medical purposes."1 Under the existing regulations it is the federal minister of health who issues a patient with authorization to possess marijuana. Under the proposed new regulations it is doctors, or possibly other health practitioners, who will issue "a medical document, similar to a prescription" allowing their patient to obtain marijuana. The language is soothing and suggests that marijuana is a medicine, albeit one that needs special oversight like morphine and for which users may be seen as patients in certain circumstances. It is but a sma! ll step from here to suggest that doctors should prescribe marijuana for medical indications. But is marijuana a medicine? Or, more specifically, is it a prescription medicine?

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