FEDS PRINT A POT-BOILER

Gov't manual on 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. "Marijuana can produce physical and psychological dependence and
has the potential for abuse."

The March 30 draft document, obtained under the Access to Information Act,
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 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."

The document, titled Information for Health Care Professionals, warns users
who choose to smoke that "smoking should be gentle and should cease if the
patient begins to feel disoriented or agitated ... naive smokers should take
great care and be supervised."