CANADA PATIENTS GET GOVERNMENT MARIJUANA

TORONTO (AP) - Jari Dvorak scored two ounces of pot Tuesday and lit up, but -
unlike in the past - the deal involved no back alley exchange or hiding from
police.

This time, the 62-year-old Dvorak went to a doctor to pick up his supply,
making him one of the first patients to receive government-grown marijuana. He
paid $245, tax included.

"I just smoked some and it's doing the trick," said the HIV-positive Dvorak,
one of several hundred Canadians authorized to use medical marijuana for pain,
nausea and other symptoms of catastrophic or chronic illness.

The program announced last month by the federal health department provides
marijuana grown by the government in a former copper mine turned underground
greenhouse in northern Manitoba.

Dvorak described his new stash as light green and orange in color, resembling
ground tobacco sealed in vacuum-packed bags. If he saw some lying around, he
said, "I would say that's marijuana, especially if I sniff it."

Getting it has been a three-year struggle for Dvorak and other Canadian
patients who have battled through the courts to make the government respond to
what they call their need for a compassionate exemption from criminal law.

Marijuana possession remains a crime in Canada, though the government has
proposed making small amounts - less than half an ounce - punishable by a
citation and fine similar to a traffic ticket. U.S. officials have warned of
tighter border security if Canada takes that step.

Last month, Health Minister Anne McLellan announced the program to sell the
government-grown weed, satisfying an Ontario court order for the government to
make a legal supply available to authorized patients. The court ruling said
current laws made "seriously ill, vulnerable people deal with the criminal
underworld to get medicine."

Under the program, qualified patients can get just over an ounce of dried pot
for about $105, well below street prices. Authorized growers can buy packs of
30 seeds once a year for $15.

Dvorak's supply came with something he never had seen - a content analysis. He
noted the THC content was 10.2 percent, compared to the range of 3 percent to
18 percent in most street marijuana. Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the
psychoactive chemical in marijuana.

He smokes pot in the morning to soothe nausea from the HIV drugs he has taken
for 15 years.

"I'm so happy the government is coming through with it," Dvorak said. "Are they
going to carry on with it? We'll see."

McLellan has called the initial program an interim measure to satisfy the court
order while the government appeals the ruling.

Canada unveiled plans for medical marijuana in 2000 and began growing a supply
in the abandoned mine shaft in Flin Flon, Manitoba. New regulations took effect
on July 30, 2001, expanding the number of Canadians allowed to use medical
marijuana and allowing people to grow their own or designate someone to grow it
for them.

The regulations also cleared the way for distribution of the government-grown
pot, but McLellan's department later announced it needed further tests on the
effects of medicinal marijuana and the quality of its pot before making any
available.

That brought last year's court ruling ordering the government to offer a legal
supply instead of making patients buy off the street.

Medical marijuana users complain the Canadian system has been a bureaucratic
maze intended to stifle the issue instead of providing pot to those who need
it. While hundreds have received federal exemptions to grow and possess
marijuana, others say it is hard to find doctors to sign off on their requests.

Dvorak described himself as lucky because his "compassionate" doctor
understands the need. He refused to give the doctor's name.

Nine U.S. states allow limited use of marijuana for medical purposes under the
direction of a doctor: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine,
Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

The Bush administration has asked the Supreme Court to decide whether the
government can strip a doctor's license to prescribe drugs if medical marijuana
is prescribed. It also has appealed a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling
that blocked the federal government from punishing doctors who prescribe
medical marijuana.