DRUG STORES COULD ADD POT TO INVENTORY

Who Will Hand Out Medical Marijuana?. Pharmacists Have Expressed 'Some
Interest' In Providing The Drug To Authorized Individuals

Health Minister Anne McLellan will hold preliminary discussions with the
Canadian Pharmacists Association next month to determine whether its members
can distribute medical marijuana.

Answering doctors' questions at the annual meeting of the Canadian Medical
Association yesterday, McLellan said the pharmacists' group has "expressed some
interest" in providing the dried marijuana to individuals authorized to use it
for medical purposes.

That would relieve doctors of the role of directly supplying medical marijuana
to their patients.

In response to a court ruling forcing the federal government to supply the
drug, McLellan last month announced a temporary plan to deliver marijuana to
patients through doctors' offices, with physicians being used as
"intermediaries" to give the drug to their patients.

The CMA is opposed to the policy. Some doctors are concerned people will break
into their offices looking for marijuana or that they will be harassed by
patients.

"I clearly understand the concerns of the CMA and doctors, and that's why we
have contacted both the CMA and the Canadian Association of Pharmacists,"
McLellan told doctors after delivering her speech.

"We are going to sit down in the weeks ahead, very soon, and talk to both
groups and determine how we can move forward in a way that works for
everybody."

Officials with the doctors' association are still skeptical. They say there
should be clear scientific proof of marijuana's medicinal properties before it
is administered to patients.

"We don't know whether it's safe. We don't know whether it's effective," Dana
Hanson, president of the CMA, said. "It doesn't matter who hands it out . . .
we've still got the same concerns."

The CMA has 10 criteria for the medical use of marijuana designed to address
doctors' concerns about distributing it to patients. The group says the
distribution project should function as a clinical trial that would involve the
ongoing monitoring and surveillance of patients taking the drug.

Alberta MP Rob Merrifield, the Canadian Alliance health critic, said
distributing medical marijuana through pharmacists would not fully relieve
doctors of responsibility, because they would still need to write prescriptions
for a drug that has not been properly tested.

"I hope pharmacists make it clear they want it handled like any other drug and
the regulations are in place, same as any other drug," he said after listening
to McLellan's remarks in Winnipeg.

"I don't think pharmacists want to be on the front lines of this, either."

Janet Cooper, senior director of professional affairs for the Canadian
Pharmacists Association, said it makes sense to get pharmacies involved.

"If it's a product that's prescribed and used within the Canadian health care
system, then it makes common sense," she said. "That's part of what we
(pharmacists) do."

But she added that her group shares many of the CMA's concerns about medical
marijuana and would like to see more research and clinical trials probing its
safety. She also stressed that the talks with McLellan next month are
preliminary.

In her wide-ranging address, McLellan also stressed the federal government's
commitment to public health, saying Canada needs a national "public health-care
centre" that would help the country co-ordinate its response to infectious
diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome.

"I am becoming more convinced that we need to enhance our national
public-health infrastructure. We need a national nerve centre," she told
reporters. She suggested it could be like the Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention in the U.S.

The CMA recently recommended the creation of a Canadian public health agency
that would be headed by a chief public health officer of Canada.

The proposal was presented to a federally appointed advisory panel examining
how to strengthen the public health system.

McLellan said the centre would be led by public health experts but did not say
whether a national public health officer would be appointed.

"Certainly that's one of the things that's on the table," she said.