POT LAW A BUST - CRITICS

Marijuana Use For Medicinal Purposes Now Legal In Canada

Regulations allowing authorized Canadians to grow and use marijuana for
medicinal purposes came into force yesterday - trailing so much red tape
that patients are scarcely better off than when they started, critics of
the new rules say.

"Thanks to the Ontario Court of Appeals, medical marijuana is a
constitutional right in Canada, so the government has to be pretty careful
in how they tread in limiting people's access to that right," Marijuana
Party leader Marc-Boris St-Maurice said.

"This regulation will not survive repeated attacks, and it will be attacked."

Under amendments to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act announced in
April, people suffering from severe forms of arthritis can now obtain the
right to possess and smoke marijuana legally if they can prove other
pain-killing drugs have been ineffective.

To Ease Symptoms

The rules also allow terminally ill patients, and those with AIDS, multiple
sclerosis, spinal-cord injuries, epilepsy and other serious conditions to
use the drug if it eases their symptoms.

But there's no point in being allowed to smoke it if you can't obtain it, a
volunteer at Montreal's Compassion Club argued yesterday - and Canada's
only authorized distributor is busy growing plants in a mine shaft in Flin
Flon, Man.

"The main problem is that there's no point of sale - there's nowhere to buy
it besides the compassion clubs," said Christian, a club volunteer who goes
by his first name only.

The initial harvest from the world's first government-run
marijuana-cultivation centre in Flin Flon, operated by Prairie Plant
Systems Inc., is expected this fall. Federal Health Minister Allan Rock is
planning a visit to the high-security site this week.

Buying pot from anyone else remains illegal, which means that compassion
clubs - which distribute marijuana illegally to patients for medical use -
still find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

"Nothing has changed," the founder of Toronto-based Cannabis as Living
Medicine said. "The regulations need to incorporate cannabis clubs to get
the job done properly."

CALM currently distributes pot to 300 people, only 30 of whom are among the
292 Canadians who have been exempted from federal law criminalizing
possession and use of marijuana, said Neeve, who also goes by his first
name only.

Of 100 people from as far away as New Brunswick who obtain pot from
Montreal's Compassion Club, only about 10 have exemptions, Christian said.

Applications to use marijuana under the new regulations must be endorsed by
at least one - and in some cases two - physicians, which Neeve said
presents another stumbling block.

"The reality hasn't changed in that people are still calling me and telling
me their physicians don't want to get involved in marijuana," he said.

The Quebec College of Physicians reiterated yesterday that doctors should
not prescribe marijuana because the medical benefits, side-effects and
proper dosages have not yet been determined through clinical trials.

A groundbreaking study to measure the effectiveness of pot as pain-relief
medication is to begin at the McGill pain clinic at the Montreal General
Hospital in January.

But in the present vacuum of research into the drug's effects, physicians
who prescribe it could face disciplinary review and sanctions ranging from
fines to temporary license suspension, Dr. Marguerite Dupre of the College
of Physicians said.

The College's position reflects that of the Canadian Medical Association,
which has argued strenuously against the new regulations.

Police don't know yet how the government plans to implement the rules, but
patients who try to get a head start on their new treatment by obtaining
pot from unauthorized distributors will face the same penalties as anyone
else, said Commander Andre Durocher of the Montreal Urban Community police.

The regulations were crafted following a July 2000 Ontario Court of Appeals
judgment which upheld a lower-court decision to stay charges against
Terrance Parker, a man who used marijuana to control his epilepsy.

The court had ruled the prohibition of marijuana under the Controlled Drugs
and Substances Act to be unconstitutional, but the declaration of
invalidity was suspended for a year so that rules allowing the medical use
of marijuana could be formulated.