CANADA MAKES CANNABIS LEGAL

CANADIANS were able to start using marijuana for medical purposes
legally yesterday. New rules also provide for the worldís first
government-run centre for cultivating the drug. A disused mineshaft
in Manitoba has been given a licence to begin harvesting the plant
for use by patients with terminal or chronic conditions. The
regulations allow those who are granted permission to use the drug to
grow it at home or designate others to supply them.

With use of cannabis effectively decriminalised across much of
Europe, Canada - along with the US and Britain - had become a target
for law reform campaigners.

US states have been moving towards allowing medical use of the drug
but have been thwarted by a zero-tolerance approach at national level.

Almost 300 Canadians had signed up for the new programme ahead of it
becoming legal yesterday and tens of thousands of further
applications are expected.

The rules permit drug possession for the terminally ill with a
prognosis of death within one year, patients with a number of 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-licensed grower is Prairie Plant Systems, which has a
contract worth $3.5million (?2.4million) to cultivate the crop in a
former copper mine in the remote town of Flin Flon, Manitoba. The
first harvest is expected this autumn.

The company has successfully cultivated a range of plants from roses
to tomatoes in greenhouses lit by powerful lamps 1,000ft below the
surface. The company has found that crops grow faster and stronger
underground because of increased carbon dioxide levels and the ease
with which the environment is controlled by computers that regulate
heat, light and humidity and ensure that the plants do not have to
battle the elements.

Thousands of T-shirts have been sold bearing the legend "Flin Flon,
marijuana-growing capital of Canada". Others show a miner pushing a
barrow while singing "Hi-ho! Hi-ho! It's off to work we go!" There
have been some complaints that patients still have to overcome
bureaucratic hurdles before they can obtain the drug. The Canadian
Medical Association, which represents thousands of doctors, opposes
the new regulations because they make doctors responsible for
prescribing a drug which, it claims, lacks significant clinical
research on its effects.

Chuck Thomas of the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project said:
"We're envious of Canadians having the luxury of complaining about
the minutiae of the programme. It seems like a reasonable system." In
America, just seven people have been given special exemptions to use
marijuana legally .

In March a House of Lords committee recommended legalisation of
cannabis-based drugs - but not cannabis itself - for medical use in
Britain and criticised the Medical Control Agency for delaying a
decision on the issue.

GW Pharmaceuticals is already cultivating plants in greenhouses in
southern England in anticipation that it will receive a licence to
produce a pain-relieving drug for multiple sclerosis sufferers.

In many European countries the debate over medical marijuana has been
rendered obsolete. The drug has been decriminalised in Portugal,
Spain, Italy and Belgium and there are few prosecutions in France and
Germany.