CANADA LEGALIZES MARIJUANA FOR THE SERIOUSLY ILL

In Canada, patients with cancer, AIDS or multiple sclerosis will be
permitted to consume marijuana, effective immediately.)

Seriously ill patients in Canada have achieved a goal they've spent
years fighting for: Possession and manufacture of marijuana for
medical purposes has been legalized, effective Monday.

The new guidelines include patients of incurable diseases in their
terminal phases, as well as those suffering from symptoms of such
diseases as severe arthritis, cancer, AIDS, and multiple sclerosis.

Those who grow marijuana for personal medical use are subject to
inspections, and must not have any prior convictions. In addition,
the government will distribute licenses to private firms which grow
marijuana for research purposes.

"Trailblazing decision"

"With this trailblazing decision, we hope to contribute to an
improvement in the quality of life for seriously ill Canadians,
especially those who are terminally ill," announced Health Minister
Allan Rock as he introduced the new guidelines. To prevent abuse,
qualified participants are to receive a special photo ID.

In the experience of many patients, marijuana relieves pain and other
symptoms of illness, as well as side effects like nausea which are
associated with medications and chemotherapy.

Government forced to take this step

Rock didn't mention that the government in Ottawa was more or less
forced to take this step: The court of appeals of the province of
Ontario had decided last August that a general ban on marijuana
violated Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

If Ottawa had not reacted within one year, all use of the drug in
Ontario would have become legal, which might have led to legalization
in the rest of the country.

Individual patients had previously fought successfully in the courts
for the right to marijuana; the first of these patients was Terrence
Parker, a resident of Toronto. He has suffered from epilepsy since
the age of four, and claims that he is able to keep his seizures
under control with about three marijuana cigarettes a day.

Keeping epilepsy under control with marijuana

Since 1977, the 45-year-old man has been arrested repeatedly for drug
possession. In 1997, a judge decided for the first time that Parker
had a constitutional right to consume marijuana for medical purposes.
About 70 marijuana plants had to be returned to him, having been
confiscated by the police. The appeals court in Ontario upheld this
opinion last August.

Exceptions made for 200 patients since 1997

Following the 1997 decision, exceptions to Canada's 1923 ban on
marijuana have been made for more than 200 Canadians. The problem:
although they were permitted to consume and grow marijuana legally,
they could not buy the drug. But many of them had no opportunity to
grow marijuana themselves, for reasons of space or of their own
health, and so again they came into conflict with police.

The new guidelines provide for legal access to the drug for all
qualified patients. They don't seem overly concerned with critics'
warnings that the effects of marijuana have not yet been adequately
scientifically researched.

Hard line in the USA

Unlike the neighboring United States-- which takes an uncompromising
hard-line position on drug policy, and whose Supreme Court recently
confirmed the ban on medical use of marijuana-- a re-thinking of drug
policy has been underway in Canada for some time.

The arrest statistics are enough to illuminate the difference:
Whereas, according to the [Center for Drug Abuse], a total of 25,000
people were arrested in Canada in 1999 for marijuana possession, the
figures provided for the US by the [Organization for Reform of
Marijuana Laws, i.e. NORML] were 24 times as high, i.e. over 600,000
arrests. Yet the US population is only eight times as large as that
of Canada.

Political discussion of complete legalization

The Supreme Court of Canada is preparing to consider a case in which
it is argued that criminal prosecution for possession and consumption
of marijuana is unconstitutional, because the drug presents no
significant threat to health.

Justice Minister Anne McLellan, from the governing Liberal party, is
also of the opinion that this issue is in need of review. She says
she is "quite open" to a debate over legalization. And Health
Minister Rock says that the time for a "free and open discussion" has
arrived.

A parliamentary committee, established by all the political parties
together, is currently looking into the question of a general
decriminalization of marijuana. The social-democratically inclined
NDP and Bloc Quebecois parties have already called for treating
marijuana offenses as simple misdemeanors.

47 percent of Canadians for full legalization

A recent poll shows 47 percent of Canadians in favor of full
legalization. And even the head of the Conservatives (PC), Joe Clark,
recently argued that it makes no sense for someone to be blocked from
studying law or medicine because of a past marijuana conviction. The
Canadian television network CBC estimates that about 600,000
Canadians currently have such a conviction on their records.