TIME TO GET OFF THE POT

If someone can explain to us the magical mystery tour that passes for
Ottawa's marijuana policy these days, we'd love to hear it.

On the one hand, with much silly nudging and winking - including lame jokes
by Prime Minister Jean Chretien - the Liberals are moving to decriminalize
pot. But on the other, Health Minister Anne McLellan had to be dragged
kicking and screaming by the courts into supplying pot to those who need it
for medical reasons.

What's created is an impression of a government working to make marijuana
more accessible to everyone - the practical effect of decriminalization -
except for those who need it.

This week, forced by a court deadline it knew was coming for months, Ottawa
rushed in a program to supply marijuana for medical purposes that has
angered everyone with a stake in it.

Patients are upset the plan could be revoked within months if the feds win
an appeal of the court decision. (Ottawa says it's not convinced marijuana
has any medicinal value and is planning clinical trials this winter.)

The Canadian Medical Association is angry because the government will
deliver pot directly to doctors to supply to some of the 582 patients now
legally entitled to use it. It says many doctors aren't convinced of
marijuana's therapeutic value, don't want to give out a drug that hasn't
been federally approved and could conceivably do harm, and don't want
criminals breaking into their offices in search of marijuana.

Police say the $5/gram the feds are going to charge patients for marijuana
means some people will try to abuse the system to get cheap pot.

And while Federal Solicitor General Wayne Easter has now promised to
intervene, the RCMP complained the health ministry hasn't given it the
names of the 413 patients entitled to grow their own pot, meaning the
police could unknowingly bust down the doors of a legal growing operation.
Meanwhile, Toronto police and other forces have given up enforcing the law
on simple possession, until that law is clarified.

All in all, it's a huge mess created by a government that, on marijuana,
continues to suck and blow at the same time.