SPLIT EMERGES OVER RELEASING MARIJUANA

OTTAWA -- Former health minister Allan Rock defended his decision to put
medicinal marijuana into the hands of chronically ill Canadians -- and got
into a public disagreement yesterday with the current minister, who wants
to wait for clinical trials.

Health Minister Anne McLellan says clinical trials must be done before the
government makes any decision on releasing marijuana -- and she insists she
has not changed her department's policy.

But Mr. Rock said it was alway his intention to provide cannabis while
trials continue.

No trials have begun.

"The second track we were on was speedy access to quality supply, and I
found this just a matter of logic," he said. "If it's right to say they
should have access, then it's right to provide them with lawful and safe
material, and that means somebody has got to produce it, and that looks to
me like the role of government."

The policy of waiting for clinical trials could mean a long wait for
hundreds of Canadians who can legally smoke marijuana for medicinal
purposes, but who don't have a legal supplier. Such users might never get a
supply.

Mr. Rock's comments put into stark relief a split between him and Ms.
McLellan, who has voiced discomfort with providing the drug for medicinal use.

"To my mind, it was pretty clear," said Mr. Rock. "We allow access to
heroin and to morphine and to all kinds of other drugs which otherwise are
unlawful and actually quite dangerous, but under controlled circumstances,
we allow them."

Ms. McLellan said she wished Mr. Rock had spoken to her before issuing his
remarks.

"I honestly wish that my colleague, the Minister of Industry, had spoken to
me before he decided to make comments in relation to an issue, a policy and
a department that he doesn't have anything to do with any more," she said.

Ms. McLellan said she is not shelving the federal program on medicinal
marijuana by waiting for clinical trials.

"If something is considered a therapeutic drug, that decision and that
representation has to be science-based," she said. "Anybody who thinks we
are shelving our policy is misinformed."

Groups including physicians and U.S. drug officials oppose Ottawa becoming
a marijuana supplier.

Mr. Rock, now Industry Minister, said the government should not construct
its marijuana policy based on the reaction of the United States or by
doctors who don't want to perscribe the drug.

"The conclusion that I came to was that we can't base our policy on social
issues like this on American standards, especially in an area where they're
very conservative," Mr. Rock said.

"We weren't, after all, talking about legalizing the drug. We were talking
about compassionate access, and I just didn't think it was appropriate to
take marching orders from Washington, D.C."

Mr. Rock also said that he weighed the concern doctors expressed about side
effects and decided that sick Canadians deserved access to marijuana if it
helped them.

"I compared people who were dying of AIDS who could have relief against the
potential harm to the lungs from inhaling hot smoke," Mr. Rock said. "I
thought that there are side effects to so many medical drugs that we use,
and that, on balance, the risk is justified."

Under Mr. Rock, the Health Department contracted with a company in Flin
Flon, Man., to grow large quantities of the drug.

The marijuana program was one of Mr. Rock's signature policies as Health
Minister, and Ms. McLellan's handling of the file has concerned those who
back the program.

Ms. McLellan said Monday that she was uncomfortable with the program
because she is also charged with helping to reduce smoking among Canadians.

Others who gain the right at a later date will continue to be able to grow
the substance or have someone else do it for them.

It is not the first time that the two ministers have had to deal with the
same controversial files. During her term as justice minister, Ms. McLellan
stickhandled the implementation of Canada's new gun registry after she
inherited the issue from Mr. Rock. Mr. Rock has also taken a far tougher
line with the provinces on medicare than has Ms. McLellan, an issue she is
also now responsible for. The two are also a study in contrasts in policy
development. Mr. Rock has a greater penchant for large projects, but has
sometimes been criticized for clumsy implementation.

For her part, Ms. McLellan prefers to avoid confrontation, and has a
reputation among some for being too unwilling to upset the apple cart.