MARIJUANA LAWS LAUDED

Local advocates for those in chronic pain are applauding proposed new
regulations that would allow Canadians to legally use marijuana as medicine.

"I think it's a step in the right direction," said Roger Procyk, prevention
co-ordinator at Winnipeg's Village Clinic -- which specializes in treating
people with AIDS. "It's a natural product. Canadians are very familiar with
this product."

Serious Conditions

Long-awaited regulations on medicinal marijuana will allow terminal
patients, and people with AIDS, multiple sclerosis, spinal-cord injuries,
epilepsy and other serious conditions to use the drug if it eases their
symptoms, under the proposed federal regulations.

"We know that there have been people affected by MS for whom the use of
marijuana has been helpful for easing pain," said Norm Velnes, executive
director of the Manitoba branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.

Under the proposed regulations, those with severe forms of arthritis will
also be given the right to possess and smoke marijuana legally, if they can
prove they can't be treated with other drugs to alleviate relentless pain.

Cost savings to AIDS patients will be immense, Procyk predicted.
"Pharmaceutical companies are really making huge profits off HIV products.
This is one drug that doesn't have to be expensive," Procyk told The Sun.

The measures will allow the government to license third parties to grow
marijuana for individual sufferers who can't grow it for themselves.

Ottawa has already licensed a marijuana growing operation in Flin Flon.

Sgt. Steve Saunders, RCMP spokesman, said the regulations likely won't
present a problem for police.

"The current Controlled Drugs and Substances Act makes possession illegal.
There are, of course, existing exceptions. If those exceptions are
broadened, we'll adjust accordingly," Saunders told The Sun.

Making it OK to possess and grow pot for medical reasons is not the first
step toward legalizing marijuana, Health Minister Allan Rock said yesterday.

"We've had medical access to morphine and heroin for a long time and it
hasn't been the thin edge of wedge,'' Rock said yesterday. '`The purposes
behind this is not to change the marijuana laws ... the idea is not to help
out dealers,'' said a spokesman for Rock.