HIGH TIME

The recreational use of marijuana remains illegal in Canada, despite
federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon's suggestion that the law be
reconsidered.

An Ontario Court of Appeal ruling in 2000 said some seriously ill people
should be allowed to possess marijuana for medicinal purposes, and Health
Canada then began a process for licencing the growing and owning of medical
cannabis. Canadian Health Minister Anne McLellan isn't comfortable on the
issue of medical marijuana; nor are many medical doctors.

So far, Health Canada has issued several hundred permits for patients to
legally possess this substance, but some of those applying for them called
the process time-consuming and hard, while those receiving them found
getting a supply isn't very easy either.

By last October, Health Canada had approved over 200 small growing
operations, but was reluctant to distribute a 200 kilogram supply of low
grade marijuana legally grown in an abandoned Manitoba mine site.

Those opposed to medical cannabis believe it's still an unknown substance
that hasn't been through enough clinical trials. One Kitchener-Waterloo
family physician told me that there's not yet a reference manual he can
consult to get an idea of what the dosage-response rates would be for such
cigarettes. And then, there remains the question of substance purity, which
could vary greatly among these cigarettes. With most other prescriptions,
doctors can consult a reference manual to estimate how their patients may
respond to a given drug's dosage, and a uniform substance purity is more
assured.

In late September, Globe and Mail reporter Gay Abbate mentioned that
doctors were reluctant to sign patients' forms for marijuana, as medical
associations and insurance companies providing malpractice policies have
warned them that its potential health risks could lead to legal actions
being taken against them.

The British Lung Foundation claims cannabis smoking is worse to lung health
than smoking tobacco, and that smoking three marijuana joints a day could
be just as bad as smoking 20 tobacco cigarettes.

The foundation's report, issued this November, said tar from marijuana has
50 per cent more carcinogens than tobacco tar, and that persistent
marijuana smokers risk lung cancer, emphysema, bronchitis, and other
illnesses. The British Lung Foundation also reported that in the 1960s, a
typical marijuana joint had around 10 milligrams of the psychoactive
ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), and the average joint now has 150
milligrams of THC.

"We have the evidence of cannabis and its dangers," Dr. Richard Russell,
spokesman for the British Lung Foundation noted in the November 16 Globe.
"What we really want to avoid is the situation we had in the 1930s, '40s
and '50s with cigarettes, where doctors were recommending tobacco as being
good for you."

In both Britain and Canada, clinical studies on medicinal marijuana use are
now being conducted with some patients. The Canadian study will use a
cannabis supply provided by the United States National Institute on Drug
Abuse, to the objection of American drug policy director John Walters --
who opposes both medicinal marijuana programs and the general legalization
of cannabis.

However, marijuana has also been claimed as useful to some patients in
countering inflammation, reducing pain and nausea, and in stimulating the
appetite.

Last September, ten seriously ill patients launched a constitutional
challenge against the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations and part of the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, advocating the law was too strict for
the medicinal use of cannabis.

Arguing their case was lawyer Alan Young, who told an Ontario Superior
Court judge that the present rules presented too much red tape for his
clients to have legal access to medical cannabis. Young also said the
government's delay in establishing a pure supply of cannabis has forced his
clients to grow their own or buy impure supplies on the black market.

Opposing Young's position was Justice Department lawyer Harvey Frankel, who
noted Health Canada's present rules ensure that doctors decide who can
legally use marijuana, and weakening regulations would increase the number
of people using various medical excuses to smoke cannabis. Frankel told the
court, "For any ailment known to mankind, someone's claimed marijuana is
good for it."

Frankel believed the average user of medicinal marijuana smokes five grams
per day, and that missing personal information or failure to provide
photographs were the main reasons in holding up medical marijuana permits
- --not a lack of doctors' approvals. Earlier this year, the Toronto-based
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health released the results of its survey
of both the medical and non-medical use of marijuana by Ontario residents.
2,406 adults were surveyed in 2000 for this purpose. Men (at 14.3 per cent
of those surveyed) were almost twice as likely as women (at 7.7 per cent of
those surveyed) to have reported smoking marijuana in 1999. Reported
marijuana use was 28.2 per cent among those 18 to 29 years, 12.3 per cent
among those 30 to 39 years, 6.4 per cent among those 40 to 49 years, 2.9
per cent among those 50 to 64 years, and 0 per cent for those 65 years and
older. Of respondents who were married, 6.2 per cent reported marijuana use
in 1999, while reported marijuana use was 26.4 per cent among those who
were never married.

In Canada, marijuana use was made illegal in 1923. 30 years ago, the Le
Dain Commission recommended its use be legalized. This year, a Canadian
Senate committee came out with a report advising that smoking marijuana be
legal for anybody over 16 years of age, and that there be a regulated
system for producing and selling it. And just last week, Newfoundland and
Labrador Premier Roger Grimes told reporters that marijauna should not only
be legalized, but that the government should treat it like alcohol and levy
taxes from its sale.

Against these Senate recommendations are those who feel more liberal
cannabis use by the public will lead to more users of the harder drugs.

According to Report on Business magazine's November edition, around 800
tons of cannabis moves around Canada every year, half of it being grown in
people's homes. Needed in the national marijuana debate is more information
on cannabis' total effects on human health, and that may take years to get.