Campaign Promotes Medical Marijuana

A pharmaceutical company chaired by TV magnate Moses Znaimer and with
ties to Burlington, is launching a campaign to get more medical
marijuana users.

Not everyone, including Health Canada, likes the idea.

Cannasat Therapeutics Inc. researches and develops drugs derived from
cannabis plants, and holds a stake in Prairie Plant Systems, the only
government-licensed grower and distributor of marijuana in Canada.

In the weeks ahead, it is placing ads in various media to tell cancer
and AIDS patients they can get the drug legally from Health Canada to
treat pain, loss of appetite and insomnia.

"They have no idea that Health Canada will provide a safe supply for
them," said Dr. Alan Ryley, a Burlington surgeon and director of
Cannasat. "I was surprised by this. I know physicians working in pain
clinics who, when they suggest cannabis might be helpful, their
patients look at them like they're being asked to do something
illegal. They're quite horrified."

Health Canada has never had a campaign to offer pot to patients
prescribed the drug by a doctor to treat cancer, HIV, AIDS, multiple
sclerosis, spinal chord injuries or disease, arthritis, epilepsy and
other illnesses. And it would prefer to keep it that way.

"We're not participating in it," said Chris Williams, spokesperson
for Health Canada. "We do not support it."

The program gets 90 applications a month. And there are 1,306 legal users.

"We don't know how many are using it (illegally), we think it's quite
a lot," he said. "They should know there is a legal way to do it."

The Hamilton AIDS Network says the problem isn't a lack of awareness.

"The challenge is that a large number of physicians aren't
comfortable prescribing marijuana," said executive director Betty
Anne Thomas. "It's not that people aren't aware of it, it's that they
can't access it."

Dr. Binh Khong, a Hamilton physician specializing in the treatment of
pain, has only prescribed pot once in a five-year career. He believes
no doctor at the Pain Management Centre at Hamilton General has
prescribed the drug in 12,000 annual patient visits.

"I wouldn't know where to begin with it," he said. "There's not much
experience with it. I don't think people are aware you can get a
prescription for it. I haven't had too many patients ask about it."

A reason doctors are hesitant to prescribe pot is it has little or no
scientific evidence to back it up. Cannasat hopes to change that by
doing randomized clinical trials to tell MDs it's beneficial.

Three of the company's five directors are local: Ryley, Burlington's
Alan Torrie, former CEO of Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital and Donald
Ziraldo, co-founder of Inniskillin Wines.