OTTAWA - Canada's health minister has authorized clinical trials to
determine if marijuana is a useful medicine for people suffering from
terminal illnesses and other painful conditions.

But the minister, Allan Rock, stressed during debate in Parliament
yesterday that the decision did not mean the government was moving toward
wider legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes.

Rock said he also wants officials to examine how to provide access to a
safe supply of medical marijuana for those who might need it.

"I think Canadians support, on a compassionate basis, if someone is dying,
access to a substance that could alleviate their symptoms," he said.

Proponents say marijuana alleviates a wide range of medical problems,
including nausea from chemotherapy and pressure on the eyes from glaucoma.

The debate echoed that in the United States, where voters in seven states
and the District of Columbia have approved the medical use of marijuana but
have been blocked by the federal government.

Many lobbying groups in Canada have pushed for the medical use of marijuana
or for its full legalization, but opponents argue that the drug is a
steppingstone to harder drugs.

Grant Hill, the health spokesman for Canada's opposition Reform Party, said
he could accept clinical trials but added, "It's quite controversial
because it could lead to other things."

"As a medical doctor, I treated young people who were habituated to
marijuana, whose marks had suffered, whose lives were wrecked," he said.

Rock, who belongs to the left-leaning wing of the ruling Liberal Party,
spent his formative years in the 1960s. In 1969 he arranged for former
Beatle John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, to attend a peace conference in
Ottawa.

Asked if he had smoked marijuana, the prime-ministerial aspirant smiled
broadly, and he refused to answer the question when pressed later.

"It has nothing to do with legalizing marijuana," Rock said, adding that he
wanted to develop scientific evidence to determine whether anecdotal
evidence of marijuana's benefits could be backed up.

"What I've asked officials to do is to develop a plan that will include
clinical trials of medical marijuana and also deal with some of the
difficult aspects of this complex question, including criteria and access
to a safe supply of this medical - or what would be a medical - drug," he
said.