RED TAPE BRINGS GRIPES ABOUT MEDICAL-MARIJUANA RULES

Canada: The Number Of Those Now Eligible To Use The Drug Is Expanded

TORONTO (AP) - New regulations took effect Monday expanding the number of
Canadians allowed to use medical marijuana, but those eligible say the
system resembles a bureaucratic maze likely to delay hundreds more from
participating.

The rules are part of the first system in the world that includes a
government-approved and paid-for supply of marijuana for people suffering
from terminal illnesses and chronic conditions such as multiple sclerosis
or severe arthritis.

Patients may grow their own pot, or designate someone to grow it for them.
In addition, the health department is paying a Saskatchewan company to grow
government marijuana for eligible patients and use in research.

While medical marijuana advocates in the United States look at the Canadian
system with envy, some users north of the border complain hurdles remain in
place.

"I still have to fend for myself," said Jim Bridges, 37, who already has
government permission to use marijuana for the pain and nausea of AIDS. He
automatically comes under the new regulations, but is awaiting word on how
to submit a photo for the identification card legal pot smokers will have
to carry.

Almost 300 Canadians such as Bridges previously were exempted from federal
drug laws that make it a criminal offense to grow and possess marijuana.
Health department officials say hundreds more have applied, and the figure
could reach the thousands.

Roslyn Tremblay, a Health Canada spokeswoman, said Monday that application
forms under the new regulations would be available "very soon," but she was
unable to provide a specific date.

To join up, applicants must submit verifiable medical records and have a
doctor's endorsement. Cases except for critically terminal patients require
further supporting documents from another doctor.

The new rules permit drug possession for the terminally ill with a
prognosis of death within one year; those with symptoms associated with
specific serious medical conditions; and those with other medical
conditions who have statements from two doctors saying conventional
treatments have not worked. Eligible patients include those with severe
arthritis, cancer, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

The government regulations meet a court-ordered deadline for Canada to
create a system for terminally ill patients previously exempted from
criminal marijuana laws to have a legal way to obtain the drug.

The Canadian Medical Association, which represents tens of thousands of
doctors, opposes the new regulations because they make physicians
responsible for prescribing a substance that lacks significant clinical
research on its effects. Without the cooperation of doctors, patients
cannot get medical marijuana exemptions.

In Flin Flon, Manitoba, a mining town hundreds of miles north of the U.S.
border, Prairie Plant Systems is growing marijuana in a former copper mine
under a government contract worth more than $3.5 million.

It expects the first harvest this fall of marijuana that will be supplied
by the government to eligible patients and used for research on therapeutic
effects.