OTTAWA MAY ALLOW SALE OF POT AT PHARMACIES

Under pressure from the courts to reform its medical-marijuana policy,
Health Canada is considering a Dutch option in which marijuana would be
made available to needy patients at the corner pharmacy.

Senior Health Canada officials visited the Netherlands in February to learn
more about a new law that allows pharmacies to distribute government
marijuana to patients with doctors' prescriptions.

The law, which became effective on March 17, makes the Netherlands the
first country to treat marijuana as an ordinary prescription drug.

"It's an option, like there are many options," said Beth Pieterson, a
Health Canada official who met with her counterparts in Amsterdam from Feb.
18 to 21.

Ms. Pieterson, director-general of the drug-strategy and
controlled-substances program, cautioned that no decisions have been made.

"Yes, we're looking at this, but we're looking at everything else, too,"
she said in an interview from Ottawa.

Health Canada allows approved patients to smoke marijuana to relieve
illness symptoms such as pain and nausea. But there is no direct legal
supply of the substance, forcing patients to buy it on the street or from
growers who cultivate plants obtained from non-legal sources.

In January, Mr. Justice Sidney Lederman of Ontario's Superior Court
declared the Marijuana Medicinal Access Regulations unconstitutional.

"Laws which put seriously ill, vulnerable people in a position where they
have to deal with the criminal underworld to obtain medicine they have been
authorized to take violate the constitutional right to security of the
person," Judge Lederman wrote in a 40-page ruling.

He gave Ottawa until July 9 to fix the regulations or supply the pot
itself. Health Canada has appealed the decision, but the deadline remains.

"We are working toward having the appeal heard, with the hope that the
deadline would change," Ms. Pieterson said.

But if Ottawa loses the appeal or cannot change the deadline, "we will be
caught, and so we are looking at all our options."

The Dutch are promoting co-operation between the two countries on the
medical-marijuana issue.

Willem Scholten, a Netherlands government official, visited Ottawa on March
14 to discuss providing Dutch cannabis to Health Canada, among other issues.

"To us this is interesting, too, because it gives some volume to our
production," Mr. Scholten said in a Jan. 23 e-mail setting up the meeting.
"Our growers have enough capacity."

The e-mail and related material were obtained under the Access to
Information Act.

Health Canada has a $5.7-million contract with a company in Flin Flon,
Man., that is growing certified marijuana for clinical trials only, but
there have been production problems.

The Netherlands contracted out its marijuana production to several growers,
who must turn over all their crop to the government.