POT FILLS PRESCRIPTION

The federal government is loosening up on the issue of medicinal
marijuana, and has even set up its own grow op in Flin Flon,
Manitoba, a facility Health Minister Allan Rock visited last week.

According to Dr. Bert Kelly, a local general practitioner, the
science of cannabis has been around for a very long time.

"The use of cannabis medically is nothing new. It goes right back
into antiquity. It goes beyond the Chinese, the Assyrians. It's been
around for probably as long as man has been investigating his
environment. It was prescribable in Britain until 1932, and therefore
in Canada, too I'm sure, and it wasn't until 1941 that the Americans
dropped it from their pharmacopoeia. So this is not anything new."

But, he adds, the politics of it is difficult because of the
criminality. A number of studies have shown possible medical pluses
to marijuana. For example, people with multiple sclerosis who have
muscle-spastic disorders, spinal injuries, for those suffering
through chemotherapy, and a number other ailments.

And while Dr. Kelly says marijuana use for medical purposes should be
looked at, it should be tested carefully.

"I think people are right in re-examining this as a drug, but I would
think, as a physician, I would want it to be subjected to the same
studies that any other drug would be tested against."

And as such, Dr. Kelly would not prescribe marijuana. Yet. "I don't
think the evidence is there. But if we could show conclusively that
for certain groups of patients that this was a definite benefit, then
I think one would consider that, yeah."

The cannabis grown in Flin Flon will be given to the seriously ill.
However, some pro-marijuana activists say the restrictions on its use
are too great.