POT FILE A FOUL MESS

It's become mandatory for pundits, when writing about the federal
government's pot policy, to make the once humourous but now cliche
"What have the Liberals been smoking?" joke.

But it's understandable. The latest head-scratcher is Health Canada's
forthcoming user's manual on medical marijuana that reportedly
instructs those who have access to the prescription pot not to smoke
it! "Administration by smoking is not recommended," says the 59-page
document.

And a Health Canada official said, "We're not recommending, in fact,
that marijuana be used."

This follows on the heels of several other strange and bizarre
undertakings by the Liberals on the pot file. A couple of months ago,
the Liberals unveiled a supposed decriminalization of marijuana that
will still punish people for possessing up to 15 grams of pot, but
will spare them a criminal record. The Grits' proposed crackdown on
growers, however, will likely result in the black-market pot producers
making even more money.

What was ironic about that was the whole push for legalized pot
originated from chronically ill folks who wanted access to medicinal
pot but didn't want to risk a criminal record. But there was nothing
in May's proposed pot law changes (that still have to actually be
passed into law) that addressed the medical marijuana issue per se.

The Grits tried to alleviate that problem earlier this month by
announcing that the government was in the marijuana business, and
would sell bags of pot and seeds to sick patients who qualify under
Ottawa's medical marijuana program. The ink was barely dry on the
press release when the Canadian Medical Association urged its doctors
not to become drug dealers for the feds. The CMA said it didn't
support Ottawa's medical pot program for many reasons, including the
lack of evidence of its efficacy.

The feds might have been able to produce their own study on the
usefulness of medical pot, but it's since been reported that Health
Minister Anne McLellan shut down a $2-million study on medicinal pot
that included clinical trials.

Following this? The Grits propose to decriminalize pot possession, but
add more penalties to growing, then grow their own and propose selling
it to sick patients, who likely won't be able to get it from their
doctors and even if they do, are being instructed by the same
government that gave them the pot not to use it!

All that said, we're actually cutting the Liberals a bit of slack on
this front, because the Grits are merely reacting to judicial rulings
demanding changes in the pot laws.

It's no surprise the Liberals have come up with a confusing and
contradictory cannabis policy when the direction is being set by the
courts.