MARIJUANA USE BY PATIENTS HAS MANY DOCTORS CONCERNED

Island doctors may soon be teaching some of their patients how to grow
marijuana, according to the P.E.I. Medical Society.

Ottawa's recent decision to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes
came into effect Monday and has many Island doctors concerned, says society
president Richard Wedge.

"We have concerns as physicians being the gatekeepers of patients who are
requesting this and doing work on behalf of Health Canada," Wedge said. "We
also have concerns as far as dosage and the quality of the drug being used."

For the most part, Health Canada will not be handing out joints to
qualified patients but will be giving them the legal right to grow and use
marijuana.

When a patient requests a licence to grow marijuana, the doctor has to
submit a form to Health Canada explaining the patient's diagnosis and why
marijuana and not another form of treatment should be used.

Wedge said Health Canada hasn't provided doctors with enough information on
how to prescribe marijuana.

"Most physicians wouldn't know how to prescribe it. This is for people who
are growing their own marijuana and a lot of people who are terminally ill
obviously don't know how to grow marijuana so there are a number of
practical concerns as well."

Wedge said the list of possible candidates ranges from those with a
terminal illness, to anyone with a disease who can make a case that they
should be included.

Health Canada would have the final say.

Wedge is not convinced that marijuana is an effective treatment since to
his knowledge there's never been a clinical trial stating that it is.

"Those trials are getting underway now and we should have waited for those
trials to be done before anything was done. But after saying that the
reason that it's being done now is because the Supreme Court of Canada told
them (Health Canada) to do it."

On Dec. 10 , 1997, an Ontario court ruled that people should be able to
have access to medical treatment without fear of arrest. The ruling came
from a case involving Terrence Parker, an epileptic who claimed marijuana
was the only way he could keep his seizures under control.

Wedge said he received a call on Monday from a doctor concerned that he
might be charged for trafficking. Wedge hopes Health Canada will sort out
some of the confusion and concerns soon by releasing some guidelines to the
medical community on prescribing marijuana.

He doesn't expect to see marijuana in the hands of patients for a few months.