OTTAWA TO SHIP POT TO PRESCRIBING DOCTORS

It's A 'Horrifying, Mind-Boggling' Decision, B.C. Medical Association Says

The federal government will immediately begin to ship medical marijuana to
physicians who prescribe pot to their patients -- a move the head of the
B.C. Medical Association calls "horrifying and mind-boggling."

"It boggles the mind. It sounds like a scheme thought up by a bureaucrat
trying to make doctors' lives more difficult," BCMA president Dr. John
Turner said Wednesday.

"I mean, what would a doctor do with 10 totes of marijuana in the office
cupboard? You would have to hope nobody breaks in to your office. I think
most doctors would be absolutely horrified by this."

Not only is the federal government willing to ship directly to doctors but
also it will do so at bargain-basement prices. Hundreds of chronically ill
patients who currently qualify for "medical marijuana" under Health
Canada's program had better rush their order though, because within weeks,
the government may revoke its official drug supplier status and resume its
policy of keeping its stash -- grown at an old mine site in Flin Flon, Man.
- -- under lock and key.

The marijuana is being offered to Canadians at $5 a gram, enough for about
one or two joints, compared with black market street value prices of $10 to
$25 a gram.

It will be regularly distributed by courier to a patient's doctor in
30-gram bags and be limited to the amount that the physician says is
required to treat the condition.

As well, the government will sell marijuana seeds -- $20 for a packet of 30
- -- to sick Canadians to grow their own.

Federal Health Minister Anne McLellan, who announced the plan Wednesday,
made it clear she is lukewarm about the new system. "Keep in mind that it
was never the intention for us to supply the product," she told reporters.

She said the government wants to be convinced first of the medical benefits
of marijuana, but its hand was forced by a court ruling earlier this year
that essentially required it to meet a deadline to become a drug supplier
- -- at least for now.

Turner said he has no idea how many doctors in B.C. prescribe marijuana for
pain relief.

Canadian Medical Association president Dr. Dana Hanson said the medical
profession believes there should be more scientific proof before medical
marijuana is used as a treatment.

Hilary Black, founder of the B.C. Compassion Club, which has been supplying
pot to the needy for several years, believes the federal decision is
"really just a smokescreen" that Ottawa set up to "look like" it was
complying with court decisions, but knowing full well that few doctors
across the country would get involved in such a plan.

"Doctors are being told by the CMA (and regulatory bodies) not to put
themselves in these positions and I understand why, because they really
don't have training in herbal medicine," she said.

Black said of the 8,000 doctors in the province, about 200 have signed the
forms the club requires to distribute pot to users who buy it from the
non-profit club for $8 to $14 a gram. Poor customers can get one or two
grams free each week. There are currently nearly 2,500 compassion club
members. Black said she doesn't anticipate the number will go down just
because of the Ottawa decision.

She said she understands why doctors would have concerns about security.
"We've had break-ins in the past, although not for a few years because we
have a great alarm system and this place is built up like a fortress now."

The long-awaited measure was unveiled after years of promises by the
government to amend its policies on medical marijuana. But the details of
the plan, and the fact that McLellan proceeded with it reluctantly, left
critics fuming.

Advocates of more liberalized marijuana policies complained it will do
little to ease the suffering of patients and may even make it more
difficult for them to obtain pot. NDP MP Libby Davies called McLellan's
plan a "shabby" response to the judicial ruling. And Senator Pierre Claude
Nolin, who also supports freer access to the drug, said of the plan: "It's
bad news. It's temporary. What's the next step? We don't know."

Canadian Alliance MP Rob Merrifield, whose party opposes medical marijuana
until validated by studies that say it is an effective treatment, said
instead of following the court's dictum, he said, the government should be
tabling legislation for parliamentarians to decide the appropriate policy.

The government stressed Wednesday that its new plan is only an "interim
policy."

Indeed, Ottawa would not have become a drug supplier for the sick if its
hand were not forced by a court decision in January in which Ontario
Superior Court Justice Sidney Lederman ruled it was unconstitutional that
sick people who qualify for the medical marijuana exemption must turn to
illegal means to buy it because Health Canada won't supply it to them.

The regulations allow certain patients with chronic or terminal illnesses
to apply to Health Canada for permission to use marijuana. Their
applications must be signed by a doctor. So far, 1,145 people have applied
and 582 have qualified. They are allowed to grow marijuana on their own or
have another approved grower do it for them.

When then-health minister Allan Rock launched the program two years ago, he
made it clear that sick people could also buy it from the government.

But when McLellan replaced him in January 2002, she said the Flin Flon crop
would only be supplied to people in clinical research trials to determine
if it was true that pot helps sick people. Those trials will proceed in
Canada this fall.

Lederman gave the government six months -- which ended Wednesday -- to come
up with new regulations. The government appealed that ruling, but the
hearing isn't until July 29 and 30. Federal officials repeatedly refused to
say if they will stop supplying medical marijuana if the government wins
its appeal.