IT'S LEGAL OR IT'S NOT

The government needs to decide either to treat medicinal marijuana
like any other prescription drug or ban it all together

It's wrong for the Canadian government to say medicinal marijuana is
legal, but then make it ridiculously hard to acquire.

To be clear, I've never used marijuana and am far from a 'legalize it'
campaigner.

But over the last couple months, my oblivious conclusions about access
to the drug have been brought to reality. Like any other prescription
drug, I figured the doctor writes the prescription and the patient
gets it filled at the pharmacy.

Silly me.

The reality is, it regularly takes patients half a year for their
prescription to be processed and several months go by between
prescription expiry and the eventual renewal. This is despite a
doctor, the person who likely best knows their patient's condition,
prescribing the drug. Once the person is allowed to use marijuana,
actually getting their hands on it can be challenging -- some turn to
compassion clubs, others go to street dealers, and some may choose to
grow it themselves.

Since the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario advises
doctors to only prescribe marijuana as a last resort, to prescribe it
with caution, and ultimately, they don't even need to prescribe it,
there ends up being few doctors willing to sign up their patients.
Doctor's should never be forced to prescribe something they don't feel
comfortable with and should prescribe everything with caution, but it
seems odd that there's such resistance to what should simply be
considered another drug to possibly help their patient.

What we have is a government policy that pays lip service to the issue
but holds little action.

The problem is that either marijuana can legally be used for
prescribed medical uses, or it's illegal. Instead of only going half
the distance, someone should be able to get a doctor's prescription
and take it to the pharmacy right away to be filled, committing to
it's legality, or the government needs to rethink whether it should be
legal in the first place.

I can't imagine undergoing surgery and having to wait four months to
get my Tylenol 3s or percocets -- drugs very capable of being resold
on the streets or abused by patients.

I'm not convinced marijuana needs to be outright legalized, or for
that matter, neither should oxycontin, morphine, or other prescription
narcotics.

Would I consider medicinal marijuana if a doctor recommended it? I'm
not sure, but I'd like to know that my options are all available and
accessible.