FEDS FIRM ON MEDICINAL POT

EDMONTON (CP) -- The federal government is not backing away from its plan
to supply patients with medical marijuana, Health Minister Anne McLellan
said Monday, bristling at earlier reports that the project has been shelved.

Her department hopes clinical trials on research-grade pot can begin at the
end of fall or in early winter, McLellan said, refuting suggestions she is
not keen to go ahead with the controversial plan to distribute marijuana
for medicinal purposes.

"In fact, far from shelving it, what we're doing is implementing the second
stage," McLellan said.

The first stage was to pass legislation last summer amending drug laws so
that people with certain medical conditions -- such as multiple sclerosis,
HIV, cancer and Crohn's disease -- could apply for special exemptions that
would allow them to use pot to relieve their symptoms.

Clinical Trials

"We have 855 of those people. More people continue to apply," McLellan said.

After a news report last week suggested the plan was being shelved, she
said some patients called the government and asked if their exemption was
being taken away.

"Of course not," McLellan added. "That process is in place. It will continue."

The second stage is clinical trials. "Clinical trials are absolutely key,
especially for us in the Department of Health," McLellan said, repeating
what she told the Canadian Medical Association earlier this month.

The safety, efficacy and long-term effects of marijuana must be studied --
just like any drug, she said.

"If we let it go on the market and somebody died, you people would be the
first to say: 'Oh look, there's the Department of Health not discharging
its responsibility in relation to protecting the safety and security of
Canadians.' "

Ottawa signed a $5.7-million, four-year contract in 2000 with
Saskatoon-based Prairie Plant Systems to grow marijuana for the government.
The pot is being grown deep in a former mine in Flin Flon.