UNDERSTAFFING DELAYS MEDICAL POT

Re: 'For Everyone's Sake, Regulate and Legalize It,' letters to the
editor, Feb. 11.

As a medical doctor and an advocate of legalized marijuana for
medicinal purposes, I have to disagree with Carl Anderson's letter
about the "terribly flawed" medical marijuana system in Canada. The
"system" for obtaining medical marijuana access from Health Canada is
solely between the patient and the doctor. Health Canada's Medicinal
Marijuana Access Program (MMAP) is not poorly planned or run in bad
faith. It is however understaffed, and that results in a 16-week
delay in processing the initial enrollment forms. But the approval
for my patients to obtain, use, grow or designate a grower is
guaranteed when I sign my name to the form.

The issue with cannabis or any drug MDs prescribe becomes a clinical
medical decision and no one at the MMAP can ever interfere with that.

Dr. David Saul, Toronto.