HEALTH CANADA READIES RELEASE OF DOPE MANUAL

Draft Version of Document Shows Patients to Receive Warnings Against
Marijuana Use

Health Canada is set to release a user's manual this week for a drug
it has long opposed: marijuana.

The unprecedented move has been triggered by the courts, which
compelled Health Canada this month to begin distributing
government-certified marijuana to a group of patients who take the
substance to alleviate symptoms.

The department must also release a manual on how to use its dope --
but a draft version of the document shows patients will get little
practical advice about ingesting marijuana and lots of warnings
against using it at all.

"Administration by smoking is not recommended," says the 59-page
document, which is modelled on drug product monographs, standard for
approved medicines.

The March 30 draft document specifically advises against administering
marijuana to children under 16 or to those 65 years or older because
the potential for harm is likely to outweigh benefits. Nursing and
pregnant women are also urged to steer clear.

The document warns of potential panic attacks, psychosis and
convulsions in some cases.

"If disturbing psychiatric symptoms occur at the prescribed dosage,
the patient should be closely observed in a quiet environment and
supportive measures, including reassurance, should be used."

Users are also advised that traces of marijuana remain in the urine
for weeks and may turn up in drug tests carried out by employers or
police.

Apart from brief sections citing scientific studies on taking
marijuana orally -- baked in a cookie, for example -- or rectally as a
suppository, the manual offers no techniques to avoid smoking.

Experienced, health-conscious users have long turned to tinctures and
vaporizers as alternatives to smoking dope.

A doctor based in Berkeley, Calif., who uses marijuana to treat
patients, posted his own user's manual on the Internet, providing
detailed advice on non-smoked forms of ingestion.

"For both efficiency and health reasons, I recommend to all my
patients that they set a goal of taking all (or almost all) of their
cannabis medicines in non-smoked forms, mostly using edibles and
drinkables, 'topping off' as necessary with vaporization," David
Hadorn wrote on his Web site
(http://www.davidhadorn.com/cannabis/CM-guideline.htm).

Tinctures can be produced by soaking marijuana leaves and buds in
alcohol, which extracts the active ingredient. Drops of the tincture
can then be used in cooking or under the tongue.

Health Canada does not approve the use of marijuana, saying clinical
studies are needed first to demonstrate whether it is effective as a
medicine.

However, court decisions have forced it to allow select patients to
use marijuana on a compassionate basis.

Suzanne Desjardins, a Health Canada scientist who helped produce the
manual, said the dried marijuana that Health Canada will distribute
through doctors to some of the 582 approved medical users will have a
standard dose of 10 per cent THC. The cost will be $5 a gram, much
less than on the street.

The material, grown under contract by Prairie Plant Systems in Flin
Flon, Man., and available in 30-gram bags, was originally intended
only for clinical trials.

Direct distribution to patients, however, could be cut off within
weeks as the federal government mounts a court challenge of the order
requiring it to be a supplier.

The Health Canada user's manual, which will be sent to doctors and
posted on the Internet this week, will be accompanied by a two-page
information sheet for patients written in layman's language, Ms.
Desjardins said.

None of the Prairie Plant Systems marijuana can be distributed until
the document is made available, she said.