MEDICAL DOPE USERS OWE FEDS MONEY

OTTAWA -- Medical marijuana users are on the hook for more than
$500,000 in unpaid bills for government-certified weed, raising
questions about the effectiveness of Health Canada's troubled dope program.

Newly disclosed statistics show that Health Canada has sent final
notices -- and sometimes dispatched a collection agency as well -- to
462 registered users since government marijuana first became available in 2003.

"Most of the 462 individuals who have received a letter regarding
their accounts in arrears have had their shipment ceased," department
spokesman Paul Duchesne said in an e-mail.

The unpaid bills, totalling $554,255 as of Dec. 31, have tripled in
value in the last two years and have resulted in some seriously ill
citizens returning to the black market for their medication. The
marijuana distribution service was specifically designed to give
patients a legal alternative to street dope.

Officials have handed 29 overdue accounts to collection agencies who
so far have been able to recoup just $2,000.

The statistics, acquired through the Access to Information Act and
questions to Health Canada, suggest a deeply flawed program as the
number of users in arrears has soared to about two-thirds of all 739
patients licensed to buy government dope.

A series of adverse court rulings since 2000 forced Health Canada
into the medical marijuana business.

The program licenses certified users who have been prescribed
cannabis by their doctors, and allows them to grow their own, have
someone grow it for them, or buy directly from the department.

Health Canada has paid Prairie Plant Systems Inc. more than $10
million to cultivate a strain of pot in a mine shaft in Flin Flon,
Man. Accredited patients can then buy the dope, with a THC content --
the active ingredient -- of 12.5%, for $5 a gram.

The department has said it plans eventually to end its licensing of
homegrown dope, forcing all medical users to buy their supplies
directly from the government, perhaps through pharmacy distribution.
Prairie Plant Systems now couriers the weed in 30-gram packets
directly to users.