SELLING POT AT PHARMACIES CONSIDERED

Medicinal marijuana may soon be available in pharmacies, according to
proposals being examined by a variety of special interest groups in
consultation with Health Canada.

Officials from Health Canada on Wednesday met with pharmacists,
medical experts, police and medicinal pot users behind closed doors to
discuss access to medicinal marijuana.

"If you wanted the biggest patient concern, it's to be able to get a
safe, affordable supply of medicinal marijuana. That's what we need,"
said Greg Robinson, who uses marijuana because it alleviates his
HIV/AIDS symptoms -- nausea and lack of appetite.

Ray Joubert, of the Saskatchewan College of Pharmacies, said that
there was a lot of support for bringing marijuana into local
pharmacies. "I think there's growing interest. There seems to be
growing support as well."

Richard Viau, an official with Health Canada's controlled-substances
program, said Wednesday the department has wrapped up a series of
consultations on the issue. The findings from those meetings will be
examined and a series of recommendations will be published later this
year.

He expects the proposals to land in cabinet for final approval by the
end of this summer.

After that, a pilot project to get marijuana distributed through
pharmacies could begin.

However, the process of getting all Canadian pharmacies on board could
take some wrangling because the provinces are responsible for health
care.

"If the pilot proved to be successful, then the provinces and
territories would have to look at it and modify their legislation to
allow for this to happen," he said.

Viau said that as of early February, there were 710 medicinal
marijuana users in Canada. Many of these are cancer and HIV/AIDS
patients, who use the drug to alleviate nausea, pain and lack of appetite.

Getting marijuana into pharmacies was just one proposal discussed
Wednesday.

Other issues included eliminating the red tape between patients and
legal access to pot; and disclosing medicinal marijuana users to police.

"Grow operations are becoming a serious concern in many communities
and increasingly citizens are bringing them forward to police," said
Chris McNeil, who chairs the Canadian chief of police drug abuse committee.

"Why not put something in place where, if we're about to search a
place, we could verify a legal activity rather than risk entering a
house by force . . ." he said.