ARTHRITIS SOCIETY LAUDS NEW DRUG RULES

Marijuana Approved For Pain Relief

The head of the Arthritis Society has welcomed the government's "bold"
inclusion of severe arthritis in the list of painful illnesses for which
marijuana can be legally smoked under proposed new regulations made public
yesterday.

However, Denis Morrice also noted that many Canadians with arthritis would
not want to smoke marijuana for pain relief and he urged the government to
speed approval of a prescription drug, Remicade, that would treat the
disease, not just the symptoms.

The drug, aimed at inhibiting the progression of joint damage in rheumatoid
arthritis, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and
other industrialized countries but has been bogged down in the approval
system in Canada for about two years, he said.

"That's just not fair," he said. "That's what we're after, treating the
disease."

About four million Canadians suffer arthritis and there are about 100 forms
of the disease. He had no idea how many people might be attracted to
marijuana. "It's one more drug that's in the hands of a doctor to treat
their patients," he said.

While the government has provided 220 people so far with "compassionate
exemptions" from the law against marijuana, the regulations codify the
conditions under which permission could be granted, spell out a licence
system and identify the medical conditions and symptoms required for
eligibility.

The regulations were welcomed by health critics of three of the four
opposition parties, all of which support what Health Minister Allan Rock
calls a compassionate approach.

The exception was the Bloc Quebecois, which accuses the government of
taking a bureaucratic approach and advocates simply legalizing possession
of up to 30 grams of marijuana for medical purposes for anyone with a
doctor's approval.

As well as terminal illnesses with a prognosis of death within a year, the
list of medical conditions that will be considered for exemptions includes
cancer, AIDS, HIV infection, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury or
disease, epilepsy, and severe forms of arthritis.

The symptoms from those conditions that could warrant marijuana relief
include severe nausea, cachexia (severe weight loss), anorexia (loss of
appetite), persistent muscle spasms, epileptic seizures and severe pain.
Patients must have the support of a doctor when applying and conventional
treatments have been at least considered.

For people with those symptoms but other illnesses, an application
submitted by a general doctor must be supported by two medical specialists
and the list of therapies tried or considered have to be submitted with
reasons why they were found inappropriate.

The regulations also spell out a licence system that would allow a patient
to grow his or her own marijuana or to designate someone to grow and
deliver it to them. A legal grower must not have had a criminal record in
the previous 10 years and would be allowed to grow only enough to fill the
patient's required dosage.

Pharmacists won't be involved initially, but background papers about the
regulations say they "could eventually play a key role in the distribution
of marijuana products as they do today for pharmaceutical drugs."