DOSAGE DEBATE HAS POT USERS SMOKIN' MAD

OTTAWA -- Health Canada has been contacting doctors who prescribe
medical marijuana for their government-approved patients, advising
them to keep the dosages low.

Some users say that not only violates doctor-patient confidentiality,
it's also wrong for bureaucrats to make judgments about the medical
needs of people they've never seen.

"A person's medication should be between him and his doctor," said
Tony Adams, 60, a medical marijuana user in Victoria.

Adams, a licensed user who's been smoking seven grams of marijuana
daily, recently applied to Health Canada to increase the dose to 10
grams, with his doctor's authorization.

Official approval from Ottawa is needed so Adam can legally grow the
appropriate number of marijuana plants, set by Health Canada at five
plants for each daily gram.

But a program official in Ottawa challenged Adams' doctor in a
telephone call, saying most patients need no more than five grams.
Adams, who has severe arthritis and degenerative disc disease, later
received a new licence for just five grams a day.

"I'm just really (angry) about the whole situation."

Similarly, Alison Myrden in Burlington, Ont., says her doctor was
challenged by Health Canada bureaucrats about her 20- to 28-gram daily
dose.

"They asked to lower it more than once, and my doctor and I both
refused," said Myrden, 43, who has multiple sclerosis.

The department's campaign to keep doses to five grams or less includes
postings on its website referring to external surveys and studies
indicating most medical users need one to three grams daily, "whether
it is taken orally, or inhaled or a combination of both."

A spokesman for the department said dosage decisions are always left
to doctors.

"Occasionally, Health Canada contacts physicians to verify or clarify
some of the information provided in the application," Renee Bergeron
said.