MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

PETER MANSBRIDGE: To other news now. As of today, Canadian can apply for
the right to possess and produce marijuana for medical purposes. The new
rules are designed to ease the suffering of people with terminal and
chronic illnesses. But as Norman Hermant reports, some doctors and patients
object.

NORMAN HERMANT: The new rules couldn't come soon enough for Marilyn
Chamney. For six years, she's used marijuana illegally to control severe
epilepsy. And she says the drug has done what nothing else could.

MARILYN CHAMNEY: The nausea has gone away. My grand mal seizures, thank
God, came to a complete stop. Not slowly went away. Complete stop since
starting it.

HERMANT: As of today, Chamney can apply to use marijuana legally and under
new regulations from Health Canada, she'll be able to do more than just that.

DR. JODY GOMBER (Health Canada): Applicants who are authorized to possess
can also apply to cultivate or can apply to have a designated grower
cultivate for them.

HERMANT: Or, starting in January, they can get it from the federal
government, from this licensed marijuana farm set up in an abandoned mine
in Manitoba. The new rules are designed to end the legal confusion over the
medical use of marijuana. In the past, people had to try to win legal
exemptions in the courts. Nearly 300 were successful, but many others
weren't. So last summer, a court ordered the government to do something
about it. Still, this is a long way from dropping by your local drug store.
First, Health Canada needs signatures from specialists, application forms,
even passport photos. If approved, you'll get a card like a driver's
license that tells police you're legally allowed to toke. But the Canadian
Medical Association says the government is moving too quickly on an issue
that needs more research.

DR. PETER BARRETT (Canadian Medical Association): Usually what happens is
products go through vigorous testing and we know where it works and where
it doesn't work, what the risks and side effects are. In this case, we
don't know any of that.

HERMANT: Other doctors who support the use of medical marijuana say these
rules could actually limit access.

DR. JOHN GOODHUE: This may well be a bureaucrat's idea of a really good system.

HERMANT: Dr. John Goodhue helped 30 patients win legal exemptions for
marijuana under the old system. Now they all have to reapply under a system
Goodhue says is far more complicated.

GOODHUE: The amount of red tape that I'm going to have to go through and
other doctors are going to have to go through to get one patient on, for
all intents and purposes, makes medical marijuana inaccessible for most people.

HERMANT: Marilyn Chamney couldn't win an exemption under the old rules, but
she says she'll try again under the new regulations.

CHAMNEY: I finally have my life back, thanks to this misunderstood plant.

HERMANT: She says she'll keep smoking that plant whether she gets a
marijuana license or not. Norman Hermant, CBC News, Toronto.