OTTAWA TO TIGHTEN RULES ON MEDICAL POT

Canada's medical marijuana licensing system is vulnerable to abuse and
needs to be tightened up, the health minister said after data emerged
this week revealing a surge in possibly fraudulent applications.

"We're aware that there are opportunities and risks of the system
being abused," said Steve Outhouse, a spokesperson for Health Minister
Leona Aglukkaq, on Friday.

Outhouse was speaking in response to a Postmedia News series on
medical marijuana licensing and use in Canada.

The figures showed, for example, that between 2008 and 2010
applications to Health Canada for medical marijuana based on severe
arthritis claims jumped 2,400 per cent.

There are two main changes Aglukkaq has proposed to prevent
exploitation of the government's marijuana medical access regulations,
Outhouse said.

The first is to better educate doctors on how to prescribe medical
marijuana, "because often doctors don't have all the information they
need to make an informed decision," Outhouse said.

"The other thing ... we're proposing is that people wouldn't grow in
homes - that it would be available through a centralized location,
whatever company would grow it, to treat it as much as any other drug."

Outhouse said the minister is concerned about the safety risks and
difficulty regulating homegrown marijuana.

Under the proposed changes, Health Canada would remove itself as the
arbiter in approving or rejecting applications to possess marijuana
for medical reasons. Instead, doctors alone would sign off on requests.

The Canadian Medical Association has said the proposals would put even
greater pressure on doctors to control access to a largely untested
and unregulated substance.

Outhouse expects the new regulations to be finalized in 2012.