FEDS FOOT POT BILL FOR CON

Correctional Service of Canada scrambled to craft a no-pot rule for
prisoners and parolees after it was hit with two surprise bills for
medicinal marijuana.

Documents obtained by Sun Media under Access to Information show CSC
officials sought legal clarification on its pot policy after receiving
two invoices from Health Canada for "payment of dried marijuana."

The heavily censored documents from March 2005 suggest the recipient
of the medicinal weed was on parole at a halfway house, but CSC
insists it does not pay for -- or provide -- dried cannabis to any
offenders.

"Given practical concerns, medicinal marijuana in its smoking format
has not been approved for any federal inmate," said CSC spokeswoman
Christelle Chartrand. "All accepted medical treatments and
accommodation alternatives will be explored and provided to inmates
with exemptions for medicinal marijuana granted by Health Canada."

Bob Browne, Ontario's regional administrator of health services, first
raised questions about the policy in a March 8, 2005 e-mail, after he
received the invoices from Health Canada. His query triggered a chain
of exchanges that made its way through CSC's executive and legal
services seeking policy clarification on the use of pot.

Most of the correspondence released through Access to Information has
been blacked out, citing personal information, client-solicitor
privilege or the internal decision-making process of government.

When reached by phone late yesterday, Browne said the offender in
question was at a community residential facility at the time, where
operations are contracted out by CSC to the community and offenders
have access to their own physicians.

NO PAY BACK

To the best of his recollection, Health Canada was never reimbursed
for the offender's weed.

Chartrand said CSC provides and pays for essential health services and
prescriptions. Sick inmates with exemptions from Health Canada to
smoke pot are considered for alternative treatments, including
synthetic marijuana, in cases of terminal illness or severe nausea
caused by cancer therapy.

A relatively small number of offenders meet the requirements at any
given time, she said.

But Jeet-Kei Leung, spokesman for the B.C. Compassion Club, said
inmates behind bars or on parole should have the same access to
medicinal marijuana as any other Canadian on the street. He said it
could provide some calm and well-being to incarcerated patients locked
in a tense and aggression-filled environment.

'UNFAIR'

"I think you are denying people who are ill access to something that
society recognizes is valuable and that the medical community
recognizes as valuable," he said. "To do that is unfair, unjust and
causing unnecessary suffering in my opinion."

Leung said CSC could find ways to address security concerns by
accommodating inmates with prescribed pot while ensuring the marijuana
doesn't fall into the wrong hands.