NO PRESCRIBING POT HERE

Although marijuana can now legally be prescribed for certain medical
purposes, you won't see people lighting up medicinal joints in Hinton any
time soon.

Doctors have been uneasy about Health Canada's July 4, announcement to
allow marijuana for medical use through the Marijuana Medical Access
Regulations. Both the Canadian Medical Association and the Alberta Medical
Association sent letters to federal Health Minister Allan Rock on the
subject. Alberta Medical Association (AMA) President Dr. Clayne A. Steed
also advised Alberta physicians to "think twice" before completing any
forms for the use of marijuana.

"There is no medical research proving that marijuana works," said Dr.
Michael Caffaro, a local physician and president of the AMA's section of
rural medicine for the AMA. "We don't know anything about it, what is it
used for, how strong is it, what kind of dosing. Those are big reasons why
I don't think most doctors would prescribe marijuana."

The AMA wrote to Rock about concerns they have: - This method of treatment
is not evidence-based and has not yet had any rigorous testing regarding
long-term implications; - There are no clinical practice guidelines in
place for the medicinal use of marijuana including appropriate dosage; -
Physicians have no way of knowing product potency (or consistency of same);
and - They place physicians in an untenable position.

"The bottom line is that there are lots of drugs we can prescribe," said
Caffaro. "But there are many we don't feel comfortable prescribing because
we don't know enough about them. I think marijuana fits into that
category." Caffaro added that general practitioners do have access to
forms, but he said he hasn't had any patients ask him.

Patients who would like to use marijuana for medical reasons may also have
other difficulties to overcome. They also need to find an outlet to buy
medical marijuana from.

"Pharmacists aren't involved in the dispensing of marijuana," said local
pharmacist Merv Bashforth. "The deal is more of giving people a card saying
that I'm allowed to use marijuana for medical purposes. The pharmacy is cut
out of the loop."

Bashforth added that marijuana doesn't have the checks and balances that
there are for every other drug. "We don't know what the standardized
process is," said Bashforth. "If I give 20 mg of Prozac, I know how much
that is. I don't know what marijuana is allowed under the law."

Questions surrounding the medical use of marijuana will continue.

"This is a strange thing, we're charting new territory and the information
is very foggy," said Bashforth. "I think the minister knows what he's
trying to do but hasn't figured out how to get it done yet."

According to the new federal regulations, medical marijuana can only be
used for certain conditions such as nausea, severe pain or weight loss
caused by cancer, AIDS or HIV infection; persistent muscle spasm caused by
multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries or disease and seizures caused by
epilepsy.