MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS OWE OTTAWA MORE THAN $500,000

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

Officials have handed 29 overdue accounts to collection agencies that
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 marijuana.

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 cannabis, with a THC content
- - the active ingredient - of 12.5 per cent, for $5 a gram.

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

Spokesmen for the department did not respond to requests for
comment.

Health Canada previously allowed a 90-day grace period for payment but
has since reduced it to 30 days before considering an account in
arrears. Other restrictive changes have been made to the program in
the past two years, including efforts to persuade doctors to keep doses low.

Many seriously ill medical users are impoverished, unable to work, and
survive on disability payments, provincial drug plans and charity.
Medical marijuana has never been assigned official drug status by
Health Canada and is therefore not covered by pharmacare programs.

Users typically smoke marijuana to combat nausea and pain associated
with chronic ailments, resulting from such infections as HIV and
hepatitis C, after standard medicines fail.

Mark Schollenberg, 42, of Stoney Creek, Ont., uses marijuana to
control chronic pain from a series of workplace injuries. Unable to
work and on disability payments, he initially used street marijuana
but changed his mind.

"I thought instead of causing myself any problems, I should get a
licence and do it legally," he said in an interview.

With a doctor's approval, Mr. Schollenberg got a licence and ordered
his first batch of Health Canada marijuana last summer, assuming
Ottawa would cover the costs.

He was cut off in October, now owes $3,962.34 including interest, and
is back on the street to purchase his medicine.

"I can't even afford the black market," Mr. Schollenberg said of his
five-gram-a-day requirement.