DOPE USER'S MANUAL SAYS DON'T SMOKE IT

Court Told Ottawa To Create Guide

Weed worse than tobacco, draft says

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
certain symptoms.

The department must also release a manual on how to use its dope -- but a
draft version 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 standard drug product monographs.

"Marijuana can produce physical and psychological dependence and has the
potential for abuse," it adds.

The March 30 draft document warns that smoking marijuana can be more
dangerous to the lungs than tobacco, but provides patients no practical
alternatives.

"We're not recommending, in fact, that marijuana be used," said Suzanne
Desjardins, a Health Canada scientist who helped produce the manual. "If
people want to use it, then we're saying, well, don't use it by smoking it.
. . . There's no study that demonstrates (in) what form it should be used."

The manual specifically advises against administering marijuana to children
up to 16 years of age or to those 65 years or older because "the potential
for harm is likely to outweigh benefits." Nursing and pregnant women are
similarly urged to steer clear.

The document, headlined Information for Health Care Professionals, warns of
potential panic attacks, psychosis and convulsions in some cases. 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 in the form of a chocolate cookie for instance 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, which delivers the main active
ingredient, THC, quickly but can harm the lungs.

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.

The 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, Desjardins said.