WHAT HAVE THEY BEEN SMOKING?

The new federal policy on medical marijuana is not just half-baked.
It is, as stoners might say, completely baked.

As of this week, Canada is the first country in the world to allow
people in medical need to possess marijuana. That's just how people
like Health Minister Allan Rock like us to be seen - warm and fuzzy,
hip and progressive.

Trouble is, the policy as it stands pleases no one - not the sick
people it is supposed to help, not the doctors who are supposed to
help them, and certainly not the police who are now supposed to be
able to weed out legal pot from contraband.

It's long on bureaucracy and good intentions, short on real
solutions. A classic Canadian government creation - the result of
court rulings, not bold political decisions.

It's been four years since a London, Ont. court first urged
Parliament to study the issue of medical marijuana. Four years to: a)
find an alternative to making criminals of critically ill people; and
b) do the required medical research.

Hundreds of sick Canadians now have legal permission to smoke the
drug - but the bureaucratic Catch-22s are dizzying. They must have
exhausted all other legal remedies. They must grow their own pot, or
get it from an approved source - tough, since that's still
technically illegal. And they must be approved by two doctors - no
mean feat, considering the Canadian Medical Association strongly
opposes the policy.

"Fundamental issues of quality, efficacy and patient safety have been
ignored," says CMA president Dr. Hugh Scully, who rightly worries
about the lack of regulated pot sources and dosages - a lack of
control that wouldn't be tolerated for any other "medicine." Health
Canada, too, has said it's "concerned about the health risks
associated with marijuana use, especially in smoked form."

Rock - whose tobacco policy is a similar mass of contradictions -
promises all these issues will be addressed ... eventually.

Great. The age of reefer madness may be over, but Liberal madness is
hardly an improvement.