PHARMACISTS MAY FILL DOCTORS' PRESCRIPTIONS

WINNIPEG - 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 on Monday, McLellan said the pharmacists' group has "expressed
some interest" in providing the dried marijuana to individuals authorized
to use it for medical purposes. This 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.

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," Dr. Dana Hanson, president of the CMA,
said."I'm not sure that medical marijuana would introduce any new or
different challenges to (pharmacists or doctors)," said Greg Eberhart,
regis trar for the Alberta College of Pharmacists.

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