GOVERNMENT GETS NOWHERE ON POT RESEARCH

OTTAWA - Four years after former health minister Allan Rock announced a
major effort to assess the medical benefits of marijuana, not a single study
has been completed and the whole research program is clouded with
uncertainty.

Advocates of medical marijuana say the government has wasted millions of
dollars growing marijuana in a Flin Flon, Man., mine without making any of
it available to patients who need it, or to scientists for research
purposes.

"Health Canada over four years has spent almost $10 million on its medical
marijuana program and has yet to supply a single gram or seed to a single
sick Canadian," Philippe Lucas of Canadians for Safe Access, said in an
interview Tuesday.

In March, Health Canada terminated funding to the Community Research
Initiative of Toronto, which was studying whether smoked marijuana can
alleviate nausea and weight loss experienced by many people living with
AIDS.

The cut came just as the project was about to start enrolling volunteer
research subjects, said Derek Thaczuk, a spokesman for the Toronto group.

"Why they would choose to throw such a monkey wrench into such a major,
pivotal trial at this point is beyond my understanding," said Thaczuk.

Health Canada spokeswoman Jirina Vlk declined to say why the funding was
terminated, but she said there were hopes research might continue with a new
partner.

She would not comment on the government's other marijuana research project,
instead referring questions to Mark Ware, project leader at the McGill
University Pain Centre.

A McGill spokeswoman said Ware was unable to discuss the project, not even
to say whether clinical work had begun.

"He's not able right now to talk about what's going on with this research,"
Christina Zeindler said. "It's due to the legislation that's ongoing."

The government has introduced legislation that would decriminalize
possession of small amounts of pot for personal use, but it's not clear why
that would affect scientific research.

Although Health Minister Anne McLellan has stressed the importance of
research to assess marijuana's medical benefits, no new studies have been
approved under her watch.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) invited proposals for
marijuana research last year and three proposals were received, but none
were approved.

"Health Canada sets the criteria for the process and in the last round none
of the projects met their requirements," said CIHR spokeswoman Janet
Weichel-McKenzie.

The apparent stall in research comes amid mixed signals in the medical
marijuana file.

Six months ago an Ontario judge ordered Health Canada to broaden access to
medical marijuana, saying it's unacceptable that patients must resort to the
black market to get their treatment.

The department has not indicated how it will respond to that deadline which
is Thursday.