GRAVELY ILL TO GET MEDICAL POT

OTTAWA -- Canadians with severe forms of arthritis will be able to possess
and smoke marijuana legally if they can prove other drugs don't alleviate
the pain.

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

"Canada is acting compassionately by allowing people who are suffering from
grave and debilitating illnesses to have access to marijuana for medical
purposes," Health Minister Allan Rock said yesterday.

Every patient wishing to use medical pot would have to either grow it or
designate another person to grow it for him or her.

The measures will also allow the government to license third parties to
grow marijuana for individual sufferers who can't grow it for themselves, a
news release said.

A designated grower would not be allowed to supply more than three patients.

The news heartened Londoner Lynn Harichy, a longtime crusader for legalized
medicinal marijuana.

Harichy said she's still waiting for Rock to provide details on how the new
rules will work.

The ideal solution is blanket legalization for all adults, regardless of
medical conditions, she said.

"When I was growing in my backyard, people would come in and cut my
plants," she said.

"If it was legalized for everyone, I wouldn't have to worry about that or
about other people profiting from us marijuana smokers."

Under the new system, marijuana would be used to alleviate persistent
muscle spasms, seizures, severe pain, nausea, weight loss and anorexia,
among other symptoms.

For those allowed to produce the drug, the new rules will set maximums for
the number of indoor and outdoor plants to be grown, authorize a grower to
receive and possess seeds and allow for site inspections and
criminal-record checks of designated growers.

In December, Ottawa awarded Prairie Plant Systems Inc. of Saskatoon, Sask.,
a contract to grow marijuana for Health Canada for research purposes.

The first crop is expected to be available this year. Rock denied that the
new rules are the "thin edge of the wedge" for legalizing marijuana.

"I don't buy that," Rock said outside the Commons. "We've had medical
access to heroin and morphine for a long time and it hasn't been the thin
edge of the wedge for legalizing those drugs.

"I think people can distinguish in their own minds between, on the one
hand, allowing medical access to marijuana and, on the other hand, allowing
it to be used recreationally."