RULES RELAXED ON MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

Doctors, Not Bureaucrats, Will Now Judge If Pot Can Ease Patient Suffering

OTTAWA -- The Canadian government on Friday unveiled regulations to allow
more sick Canadians to use marijuana and more healthy Canadians to grow it
for them. The government has scheduled the regulations to take effect this
summer.

The new regime puts the onus principally on doctors, rather than Health
Minister Allan Rock's office, to decide whether marijuana could ease
patient suffering. The minister has granted, since 1999, more than 200
exemptions from criminal prosecution to ill Canadians who can prove they
need to smoke marijuana to deal with diseases like AIDS and cancer.

An Ontario court last year struck down Canada's anti-possession law as a
violation of the rights of sick Canadians. The judge gave the government a
year to broaden and loosen its laws; Friday's announcement was a response
to that ruling and deadline.

Two B.C. compassion clubs that provide pot to sick people praised Friday's
announcement, although they complained that the rules remain far too strict.

Some of the major changes include:

- - Sick people can designate someone else to supply their pot, though
licensed growers cannot have criminal records and can supply to no more
than three people.

- - Three categories have been established under which Canadians can seek
their physician's support to consume or grow marijuana.

The first involves terminal diseases like cancer or AIDS, where the person
has no more than a year to live. People must have their doctor send Health
Canada an application stating, among other things, that all conventional
methods to deal with symptoms of terminal diseases have been considered,
and that marijuana was deemed as the recommended option and its use
outweighs other risks.

The second involves serious medical conditions like multiple sclerosis,
spinal cord injury, epilepsy, or severe arthritis. The burden becomes more
onerous because in this situation the patient must get a medical specialist
in that particular field to fill out the application.

The third category is deliberately vague and refers only to conditions
"other than" categories one and two. This category requires two specialists
to apply on behalf of the patient.

Phillipe Lucas of the Vancouver Island Compassion Club, who has been
consulted by the government, said he believes this latter category would
relate to problems ranging from stress, migraines, bipolar disorder,
depression, and chronic pain caused by injuries.

At an Ottawa news conference, Health Canada's Dann Michols was asked if the
minister would approve permits for people with those illnesses if they
fulfilled all the requirements.

"If several members of the medical community with their training are
prepared to authorize the use of marijuana for a particular purpose then
that should be sufficient for us to issue the authorization," he replied.

But Hilary Black of the Vancouver Compassion Club said the requirement for
specialists will impose enormous burdens on patients and the health-care
system because waiting lists are already extremely long.

Black said she briefed some of her club's 1,400 members, of whom only 40
have ministerial permits, on Thursday.

"They're pretty excited about it," Black said.

"Anything that the government does to move towards recognizing and
legitimizing cannabis as a medicine alleviates a little bit more of the
fear and stigma they live under in their lives."

Black and Lucas said it will be extremely difficult for sick Canadians,
especially those with terminal illnesses, to find a friend or relative
willing or capable of growing pot for them.

Most Canadians who are skilled at growing and have a ready supply have
criminal records or operate commercial businesses and won't run the risk of
obtaining permits to help individuals.

Lucas said he expects Health Canada to loosen rules later this year to let
compassion clubs become legal distributors.

They now operate illegally, and although police generally turn a blind eye,
Lucas said he goes to court Monday on a possession charge involving pot he
intended to distribute to members.

"If we recognize that sick people can't grow for themselves, we'll soon
recognize that they can't find someone else to do it for them," said Lucas,
who smokes marijuana to deal with nausea and appetite-loss caused by
Hepatitis C.