MEDICAL POT PROPOSAL STALLED

The chief of Ottawa's medical marijuana program has been putting the brakes
on a Health Canada proposal that would give needy patients direct access to
government dope.

A newly released document shows that Cindy Cripps-Prawak has been fighting
a proposed policy shift that would deliver government-certified marijuana
to the chronically ill.

In notes to the draft policy statement, Cripps-Prawak says the shift would
create a bad precedent by undermining Canada's drug-approval process, which
requires clinical proof before drugs can be made available to the public.

"This option does not support Health Canada responsibility with respect to
the safety and well-being of Canadians," she wrote on June 5.

She warns that Health Canada would be in a conflict of interest since it
would be both the regulator and the distributor of a drug.

Currently, Health Canada will provide its standardized marijuana only to
accredited researchers, who would then dispense it to select patients.