CANADA TO AUTHORIZE MEDICINAL MARIJUANA USE

Debate Leading To Shift In Public Opinion

OTTAWA -- As the government puts the finishing touches on regulations
that will make Canada one of the first countries to license marijuana
growers, deepening public tolerance toward the drug is clearing the
path to legal reforms that could make Canada far more permissive of
marijuana than the United States.

Officials from Health Canada, the country's national health care
agency, say that by the end of July, marijuana growers will be able
to apply for special licenses to produce small amounts of marijuana
legally for people with terminal illnesses or chronic diseases to
ease their pain.

Over the past few years, more than 250 Canadians have received
government permission to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes, and
many more will qualify for the exemptions when the new regulations
take effect, but until then they must either grow the marijuana or
buy it illegally.

Health officials say that although there is no scientific proof that
marijuana has medicinal properties, testimony from people who have
used it to overcome the nausea associated with chemotherapy or to
help with their glaucoma and other diseases has been so convincing
that the government has decided to make it legal under certain
circumstances.

`A New Mood'

What they had not counted on, however, is that by debating and then
authorizing this specialized use of marijuana, they would be seen by
many Canadians as legitimizing the use of the drug. A recent survey
showed that 47 percent of Canadians agreed that marijuana should be
legalized, a sharp increase over the number five years ago.

``A new mood seems to be sweeping the country,'' said Reginald Bibby,
a professor at the University of Lethbridge who has studied Canadian
attitudes toward marijuana for a generation. For 20 years starting in
1975, the percentage of Canadians who favored legalizing marijuana
ranged from 24 to 31. But since 1995, Bibby said, acceptance has
broadened substantially.

``Unquestionably, there is a link between government actions and the
changes in public attitudes,'' Bibby said. ``The moral entrepreneurs
in the country are working very hard to portray the harmful effects
of marijuana but most people are starting to see it as only something
that can be positive.''

An estimated 1.5 million Canadians smoke marijuana recreationally,
according to the Canadian Medical Association.

Dann Michols, an assistant deputy minister at Health Canada, said
that in drawing up the new regulations, health officials had not
taken into account the impact such actions could have on the social
use of marijuana. ``I don't think that it was explicitly
calculated,'' Michols said.

Health officials are under great pressure to have the new regulations
ready to take effect by the end of July. An Ontario court of appeals
last year gave the government until July 31 to revamp regulations for
the medicinal use of marijuana or have the entire section of the
federal controlled substance act be voided, which would have made any
use of marijuana legal in Canada.

Until recently, approaches toward the medicinal use of marijuana were
similar in both the United States and Canada. But last month the U.S.
Supreme Court upheld a federal law banning the distribution of
marijuana for medicinal purposes, overriding laws in California and
several other states that had legalized it.

The debate over marijuana in Canada has moved to Parliament. A
committee from all five political parties is preparing to undertake a
comprehensive study of Canada's drug policy and consider a range of
reforms, including the legalization of marijuana.

Support From Parties

Former Prime Minister Joe Clark, a member of the current Parliament
and the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, recently called
for lessening penalties for using marijuana.

The leaders of two other minority parties, the New Democrats and the
separatist Bloc Quebecois, also support the idea of decriminalizing
marijuana smoking so that an offense would be treated like a traffic
ticket, perhaps involving a fine but leaving no criminal record.

The Canadian Police Association told a Senate committee May 28 that
it opposed decriminalization in the belief that lessening the
punishment could lead to increased use of hard drugs.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien has withheld support for decriminalization.