PUBLIC USE OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA FACES REVIEW

Rules Uncertain

OTTAWA (CNS) - Canadians who have permission from the federal
government to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes are facing
impending restrictions about where they can light up.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said yesterday that the government is
concerned about the issue of smoking medical marijuana in public.

"That's why I have instructed my officials to examine this issue and
develop options," she said in the House of Commons.

The federal government has been under pressure to clarify the rules
around medical marijuana use in public. One recent request for
clarification came from a bar owner in Burlington, Ont., who faced
allegations of discrimination when he asked a medical marijuana user
not to smoke outside his business.

The existing Marijuana Medical Access Regulations, which came into
force in 2001, do not stipulate where patients can use their
marijuana. While users must abide by any federal or provincial
legislation and local bylaws that restrict smoking cigarettes in
public places, there are no other specific prohibitions on medical
pot use in public.

Health Canada officials are to develop proposed regulations and
present them to the Health Minister, who will make the final decision.

A member of the British Columbia Compassion Club Society, a health
centre that provides access to medicinal cannabis, said the
organization understands the need for clear rules but hopes they are
no more strict than the ones imposed on cigarette smokers.

Jayce Sale said they are concerned about the impact of heavier regulations.

"It gets into a slippery slope because medical marijuana users have
that right to use it, and so by creating more barriers around where
they can do it is a concern because it's limiting options for them," she said.

Steve Kubby, now a California resident who was a licensed medical
marijuana user when he lived in Sechelt, B. C., said he is also
concerned about the Canadian government's decision to take a tougher
stand on medical marijuana use.

"We don't have those kinds of requirements for other people when they
use their medicines," said the 62-year-old, who uses cannabis daily
to ease the effects of his rare form of cancer.

"It is just so difficult to understand how someone that is struggling
with cancer as I am ... my society would want to send police with
guns to terrorize me and my family, tell me where I can and cannot
smoke, to arrest me if I happen to be using cannabis in the wrong
place or at the wrong time."

In 2004, Mr. Kubby was hiking in a park and confronted by an off-duty
RCMP officer who took his joint, threw it on the ground and told him
he had no right to smoke it there even when Mr. Kubby explained he
was a registered patient under the government's medical marijuana program.

The RCMP later apologized to him.

About 2,800 people are authorized to possess marijuana under the
federal government program.