DOCTOR BURIED UNDER RED TAPE

Effort to get marijuana for AIDS patient runs into bureaucracy

An Ottawa doctor who hopes to force the government's hand on medicinal
marijuana said he is being buried under government red tape.

Dr. Don Kilby recently applied to Health Canada for a legal exemption that
would allow marijuana to be used as a medicine by a Vanier man with AIDS.
Dr. Kilby said marijuana eased the side-effects of AIDS medication taken by
Jean Charles Pariseau, who was charged with possession of the drug in
October.

Initially, the man responsible for regulating drugs for the federal
government, Dann Michols, suggested the government was willing to approve
the use of marijuana as a legal medicine in emergency situations.

"We have said this all along and our minister (Allan Rock) has said it all
along: Marijuana as a medicine is not an outlandish proposition," Mr.
Michols, director general of the therapeutic products directorate, recently
said.

But Dr. Kilby said he has since been sent on a bureaucratic goose chase in
search of details on how to get licensed to grow and supply marijuana. And
he has been overwhelmed by "hundreds of pages" of regulations and
procedures that he said do little to help him understand how to get through
the government's "hoops.

"I don't see how, without an intervention from the minister of health to
allow for an exemption under the act, we'll be able to get through this,"
Dr. Kilby said in an interview. "My patient can't wait."

Dr. Kilby said he supports the pressure tactics of a group of Ontario
hemp-store owners who have announced they plan to sell marijuana illegally
in a bid to force the government's hand.

Dr. Kilby said he hopes their move pushes the government to act on its
rhetoric. He is inspired by the example of the Netherlands, where growers
sell marijuana to government institutions - even though they are not
licensed.

"Although I feel very encouraged by the fact that the (Canadian) government
has said ... 'If you can go through the hoops, we'll give it to you,' I'm
really beginning to wonder whether these are hoops that you can actually go
through."