CANADA NEEDS A MEDICAL-MARIJUANA POLICY THAT PUTS PATIENTS FIRST

In 2003, I started bringing pot home from school for my
dad.

He had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1985. My family
struggled alongside him as MS took its painful toll. His galaxy of
pills did little but turn him into a zombie.

Eighteen years later, he discovered cannabis. I procured it for him
from my high school, where it was - and remains - ubiquitous. What
began as a clandestine therapy of last resort soon became his
front-line treatment.

Today, a regimen of cannabis-infused foods helps him control pain,
spasms and nausea. It lifts his spirits, perks up his appetite and
helps him sleep. The side effects are negligible, especially compared
to those of some of his legal medications, which twice nearly killed
him.

Fortunately, I no longer have to hang out in schoolyards to buy him
what he needs to survive comfortably. I live in a country where I, as
his caregiver, can grow this wonderful plant under licence from Health
Canada.

For now. Health Canada is overhauling the Marijuana Medical Access
Program in response to concerns about "exploitation by criminal
elements." During consultations with Montreal medical cannabis
dispensaries in August, Health Canada indicated it is seeking to adopt
a "more traditional regulatory role" in what it now refers to as a
"marketplace." The plan is to privatize medical cannabis and license
commercial producers, who must comply with strict protocols in order
to qualify.

Which is positive, prudent and even praiseworthy, but only when
contrasted against a decade of poorly planned fecklessness.

Health Canada goes to great lengths to mention in its "proposed
improvements" that this is "not the legalization or decriminalization
of marijuana." This effort to eschew legalization as a sensible policy
option is cynical and sophistic.

To make sure this scheme is not some form of de facto legalization,
the federal government plans to phase out permits that allow patients
to tend their own marijuana gardens or designate a caregiver to do so.
(And thanks to the omnibus crime bill, if you are convicted of growing
medical cannabis without a licence from Health Canada, you will go
directly to jail.)

This does not bode well for patients and does not sit well with
Canadians. Revoking and recriminalizing these supply options is a
punitive measure, devoid of compassion and decency.

During a recent meeting that Health Canada representatives had with
the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada, it was
pointed out to them that there are three possible courses of action:
maintain the status quo, legalize cannabis, or regulate it like any
other medical product or therapy.

But physicians are loath to be gatekeepers. Regulating cannabis as a
medical product is a half-measure doomed to failure so long as
government wages an expensive ideological war against non-medical use.
Dr. Yves Robert, secretary of the College des medecins du Quebec, has
said on the college's blog that "the medical profession cannot agree
with such a paradoxical policy."

The California Medical Association has endorsed cannabis legalization
on the grounds that it is a "medically sound policy that will only
further the ability to properly treat patients."

In Vancouver, the incumbent mayor and four of his predecessors made an
endorsement to "stop the violence" and remove this now highly
lucrative crop from the clutches of a criminal market.

The idea is trending upward. More Canadians support legalization than
support our duly elected government. Parents today understand that
prohibiting cannabis fails to protect their children and does not make
their communities safer.

The Marijuana Medical Access Program was created because sick
Canadians require help. The coercion underpinning Health Canada's
"improvements" undermines their potential for success.

My father's plight is but one of millions that expose the folly of the
status quo, and the need for a cannabis policy based on evidence and
public health.

But until the federal government progresses beyond its obstinate
denial and legalizes cannabis, the sick will suffer, miscreants will
line their pockets, and this awesome medicine will be more easily
found in high schools than in hospitals.