OTTAWA TO TIGHTEN RULES ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Canada's medical marijuana licensing system is vulnerable to abuse and
needs to be tightened up, says the health minister 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, which is why we are working to tighten up the system,"
said Steve Outhouse, a spokesman for Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, on Friday.

Outhouse was speaking in response to a Postmedia series looking at
medical marijuana licensing and use in Canada. The series was based on
electronic data the Citizen obtained from Health Canada through the
Access to Information Act. 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,
said Outhouse.

They include better educating doctors on how to prescribe medical
marijuana and eliminating the right of patients to be granted a
licence to grow in their homes, he said.

"We want to be able to get more information out to doctors - because
often doctors don't have all the information they need to make an
informed decision as to whether or not to prescribe," said Outhouse.

"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 health minister is concerned about the safety risks
involved with allowing people to grow marijuana plants in their home.
He said it's also difficult to regulate plant growth in homes, and
there is a risk of people growing more marijuana than permitted.