MEDICINAL POT STILL ON AGENDA: MCLELLAN

EDMONTON -- The federal government is not backing away from its plan to
supply patients with medical marijuana, Health Minister Anne McLellan said
yesterday, 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.

"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, Man.

The government couldn't go ahead with an earlier crop because it wasn't
standardized and therefore not suitable to use in trials, she said. "They've
grown a second crop and we're testing it," McLellan said. "We believe that
we have overcome that problem. We have a standardized crop which can be
used." -- Canadian Press