NETHERLANDS PHARMACIES DISPENSING POT

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Just what the doctor ordered?

Pharmacies may fill prescriptions for marijuana and patients can get the
cost covered by insurance, according to a law that went into effect Monday.

Doctors in the famously liberal Netherlands have long recommended marijuana
to cancer patients as an appetite enhancer and to combat pain and nausea.
But it is usually bought at one of the country's 800 ``coffee shops,''
where the plant is sold openly while police look the other way.

The Dutch government will license several official growers later this year.
In the meantime, pharmacies will have to decide for themselves where to get
the marijuana.

Many pharmacies use marijuana distributed by Maripharm, a company that
advertises its product as "standardized, vacuum-packed and bearing patient
information and dose advice.''