MEDICAL POT IN LIMBO?

OTTAWA -- Health Minister Anne McLellan won't release any of the marijuana
being grown for the government to distribute to sick and dying patients
until it has been tested in clinical trials, her spokeswoman said yesterday.

The stipulation suggests the marijuana, being grown in an old mine in Flin
Flon, won't be made available to severely sick or dying patients for years,
if ever.

It also suggests McLellan is taking a much tougher line on the use of
medical marijuana than her predecessor Allan Rock. Clinical trials usually
involve giving one group of people a drug and another group a placebo and
observing differences. Such studies can take years to design and conduct.

And it's far from certain that clinical trials will in the end prove any
therapeutic benefit, which raises the possibility that the Flin Flon crop
will never be made available to sick people who claim it helps them.