Author: DEAN BEEBY, Canadian Press

CANADA TURNS TO NETHERLANDS AS POSSIBLE MODEL FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA POLICY

(CP) - Under pressure from the courts to reform its medical marijuana
policy, Health Canada is considering a Dutch option in which marijuana
would be made available to needy patients at the corner pharmacy.

Senior Health Canada officials visited the Netherlands in February to learn
more about a new law that allows pharmacies to distribute government
marijuana to patients with a doctor's prescription.

The law, which became effective March 17, makes the Netherlands the first
country in the world to treat marijuana like an ordinary prescription drug.

"It's an option, like there are many options," said Beth Pieterson, a
Health Canada official who met with her counterparts in Amsterdam from Feb.
18 to 21.

Pieterson, director general of the drug strategy and controlled substances
program, cautioned that no decisions have been made.

"Yes, we're looking at this but we're looking at everything else, too," she
said in an interview from Ottawa.

Health Canada currently allows approved patients to smoke marijuana to
relieve symptoms such as pain and nausea. But there's no direct legal
supply of the substance, forcing patients to buy it on the street or from
growers who cultivate plants obtained from non-legal sources.

In January, Justice Sidney Lederman of Ontario's Superior Court declared
the Marijuana Medicinal Access Regulations unconstitutional.

"Laws which put seriously ill, vulnerable people in a position where they
have to deal with the criminal underworld to obtain medicine they have been
authorized to take violate the constitutional right to security of the
person," Lederman wrote in a 40-page ruling.

He gave Ottawa until July 9 to fix the regulations or supply the pot
itself. Health Canada has appealed the decision but the deadline remains.

"We are working towards having the appeal heard, with the hope that the
deadline would change," said Pieterson.

But if Ottawa loses the appeal or can't change the deadline "we will be
caught, and so we are looking at all our options."

The Dutch have also been promoting co-operation between the two countries
on the issue of medical marijuana.

Willem Scholten, a Netherlands government official, visited Ottawa on March
14 to discuss providing Dutch cannabis to Health Canada, among other issues.

"To us this is interesting too, because it gives some volume to our
production," Scholten said in a Jan. 23 e-mail setting up the meeting. "Our
growers have enough capacity."

The e-mail and related material was obtained under the Access to
Information Act.

Health Canada currently has a $5.7-million contract with a Flin Flon, Man.,
company that is growing certified marijuana for clinical trials only, but
there have been production problems.

The Netherlands has also contracted out its marijuana production to several
growers, who must turn over all their crop to the government. Pharmacies
are expected to stock the packaged product by September.

"Now that we've heard about the Netherlands developing product that will be
available for sale in the Netherlands, there's nothing to say that our
researchers would not be interested in looking at that particular product,"
said Cindy Cripps-Prawak, head of Canada's medical marijuana program.

But Pieterson said there is no plan at present for Health Canada to buy any
Dutch dope, whether for patients or for researchers.

Some in Canada's medical marijuana community are pressing Health Canada to
adopt the Dutch model as a quick and effective solution to the court quagmire.

"It appears to be a fairly feasible and well regulated system, worthy of
possible emulation here in Canada," Eric Nash, a medical marijuana grower
in Duncan, B.C., wrote to Pieterson and others on April 3.

"It would alleviate many of the problems patients face, not to mention the
current considerable financial burden of court costs and judicial resources
being overly burdened."

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has said he hopes to introduce
legislation before the Commons' summer recess to decriminalize the
possession of small amounts of recreational marijuana.