OTTAWA'S NOT A VERY GOOD DRUG DEALER

The federal government is obviously profoundly uncomfortable at the idea of
dabbling in the drug-dealing business.

Last year, with much fanfare, Ottawa unveiled what it described as a
"compassionate framework" to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

The new regulations were designed to replace exemption provisions that
required people to get special permission from the health minister to use
pot for therapeutic reasons.

It was supposed to be easier for those suffering from debilitating
illnesses to access medical marijuana. Things haven't turned out that way.

As part of the application process, patients are supposed to obtain
declarations from medical specialists that include, among other details, a
recommended dosage.

Physicians, as you can imagine, aren't interested in prescribing a drug
without clear, scientific evidence on the risks and benefits.

As a result, doctors have been largely reluctant to co-operate and Ottawa
has had to grant extensions under the old rules to many patients who were
previously allowed to smoke pot.

Two months ago, I wrote about an Edmonton couple suffering from hepatitis C
whose exemption from prosecution under the old law was scheduled to expire
at the end of this week.

Try as they might, Dale and Alice Strohmaier couldn't find specialists who
would help them apply for permission to use pot under the new regulations.

The day my column ran, a Health Canada official phoned them and gave
assurances that the problem would be resolved.

Sure enough, the couple were granted a six-month extension. Numerous other
sick Canadians have been quietly granted similar renewals because they,
too, haven't been able to convince doctors to fill in their applications.

But they're sorely mistaken if they think they'll have access to Ottawa's
own research-grade weed any time soon.

Sure, the plants have been harvested in the government's high-security
underground pot bunker in Flin Flon, but the stuff is just sitting there
smelling up the place.

When Health Canada announced in December 2000 that Prairie Plant Systems
Inc. had won a $5.7-million contract to grow standardized pot for medical
and research needs, it declared that the government-authorized marijuana
would be available in a year.

More than a year later, priorities have changed.

There is no "time frame" as to when the Flin Flon pot will be distributed,
Farah Mohamed, spokesman for Health Minister Anne McLellan, told me yesterday.

And that's not all. Our official weed won't be released to the ailing
Canadians who qualify until clinical trials on medicinal pot have been
completed, she said.

"We're not in the business of taking risks," she added, saying the
government has no intention of distributing an untested product.

In that case, Ottawa should have clearly stated right from the beginning
that it would likely be years before people not involved in clinical trials
would have access to government pot.

The clinical trials, by the way, haven't begun yet.

In the meantime, there's all that pot stored in Flin Flon, which, unless
it's really wicked, is bound to lose its potency as the months go by.

York University law professor Alan Young predicts Ottawa will end up
incinerating this batch on the grounds that it no longer has any medicinal
value.

While the government is committed to clinical trials, it's not particularly
interested in being a drug dealer for ill Canadians, says Young, who has
represented ailing Canadians in their fight to use pot.

"I don't think they can backpedal on this. They can stall, they can delay,
but I don't think they can subvert it. We have to move forward eventually."

Young plans to push the process along. He's about to go to court to try to
have Ottawa's medicinal pot regulations quashed. If he wins, pot possession
will no longer be a crime. That should give Ottawa a buzz.