UN WATCHDOG TAKES AIM AT MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM

Government Should Be Sole Provider of Cannabis, Narcotics Control
Board Says

Justice Minister Robert Nicholson said Wednesday the government's
medical marijuana regulations are under review after the UN's drugs
watchdog warned Canada needs to tighten up the system.

The Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board said Canada is
operating outside international treaty rules aimed at minimizing the
risk criminals will get hold of cannabis grown under the program.

"The whole question of medical marijuana is being looked at by the
minister of health with respect to the options that she has," said
Nicholson, whose ministry serves as the umbrella agency for the
government's anti-drug efforts.

The warning in the watchdog's annual report accompanies praise for the
government's National Anti-Drug Strategy, which the board said it
notes "with appreciation."

Nicholson said he took heart from that, adding it "plays very well"
into the government's efforts to push through a crime bill containing
tougher drugs-offences sentencing provisions that has been held up in
the Senate.

Canada increased the number of cannabis cultivation licences a person
can hold last year after court decisions stated patients' access had
been too restricted.

Health Canada has issued almost 4,900 permits allowing people to
possess medical marijuana they get from more than 1,100 licensed
growers, some of whom are growing it for their own use.

"Canada continues to be one of the few countries in the world that
allows cannabis to be prescribed by doctors to patients with certain
serious illnesses," said the INCB report.

But the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotics, which Canada has signed,
says the government must be the sole distributor of the otherwise
illegal substance, which patients use as a pain reliever.

The opportunity for misuse of the system is reflected in an RCMP
review identifying 40 cases in which licensed growers were also
trafficking marijuana for profit. The same review found violations in
a total of 70 cases.

While the INCB report noted that Canada "intends to reassess" its
access-to-cannabis program, it said the board "requests the government
to respect the provisions" of the 1961 convention in conducting its
review.

The sole company among the growers that Health Canada has contracted
to supply about 28 per cent of permit holders signalled Wednesday it
would welcome a more focused oversight.

"We get severe criticism from the armchair critics and those who feel
threatened that we're infringing on their rights to produce cannabis,"
said Brent Zettl, president of Prairie Plant Systems Inc., of Saskatoon.

"But we're already essentially conforming to the convention."

Health Canada frequently inspects the company's operations, and
officially "owns" the cannabis it produces for shipment to clients.