A MODEST STEP

There is a slightly farcical quality to Ottawa's well-intentioned efforts
to make medicinal marijuana available to the severely ill.

The government's new regulations authorizing individuals to grow and use
the drug, with their doctor's approval and a licence from Health Canada,
came into effect this week, along with dark warnings from the medical lobby
about the possibility of abuse.

Today, Health Minister Allan Rock visits Flin Flon, Man., to inspect the
government of Canada's first marijuana growing operation, an underground
farm in an abandoned mine, 1,000 metres below the earth.

Top-level security clearance and special clothing are required to enter the
site.

All this angst and officialdom seems a bit odd for a drug that millions of
Canadians smoke recreationally; that can be bought in almost any
school-yard; that even the country's police chiefs want decriminalized.

Rock is right to loosen Ottawa's restrictive drug laws to allow individuals
who are terminally ill or suffer chronic pain access to marijuana, which
appears to provide relief. (In fact, he had little choice. The Ontario
Court of Appeal ruled, a year ago, that it was unconstitutional to
criminalize a person for using a substance that alleviates the symptoms of
a serious medical disability.)

But this is a modest step. It is not as if the health minister were
allowing Canadians their first whiff of a dangerous new intoxicant. He is
not putting a lethal painkiller into the hands of desperately ill people.
He is not even advocating that Canada treat cannabis as a controlled
substance, like alcohol.

The grave misgivings voiced by doctors, the strict controls imposed by the
government and the public sniggering that surround this measure are almost
reminiscent of the Prohibition era, 80 years ago. And today's drug laws are
almost as ineffective as the liquor laws were then.

Rock deserves credit for responding humanely to the pleas of cancer
patients, AIDS sufferers, epileptics and others with debilitating illnesses.

But a little less sanctimony from all involved would be welcome.