- OTTAWA (CP) -- Health Canada
is getting into the business of selling marijuana to the sick, even while
police continue to bust people for growing or dealing the drug illegally.
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- Under an interim policy announced today, the government
will sell bags of marijuana seeds and dried marijuana to sick patients
who qualify under Ottawa's medical pot program.
-
- The announcement came on the day an Ontario court judge
set as the deadline for the federal government to come up with regulations
for distributing medical marijuana. The judge ruled Ottawa couldn't logically
give sick people permission to use pot without also providing a legal source
of supply.
-
- Health Canada is appealing the ruling and Health Minister
Anne McLellan hinted the sales program could end quickly if her department
wins the appeal.
-
- "It was never the intention for us to provide product,"
she said in Edmonton. "What we wanted to do was in fact determine
whether there is medicinal benefit in relation to the use of marijuana."
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- She expressed strong skepticism about the premise of
the medical marijuana program instituted by her predecessor, Allan Rock.
-
- "There have been no studies anywhere in the world
that have been able to confirm medicinal benefit," she said.
-
- The tone of her comments differed from that used by Rock
who said the medical marijuana program was based on compassion for people
who are seriously ill or in discomfort.
-
- Canadian Alliance health critic Rob Merrifield said McLellan
has been left out on a limb by Rock's initiative. He said marijuana should
have to go through the same scientific testing as any other drug.
-
- About 500 people now qualify to use marijuana under the
program, but they have been required to grow their own pot, designate someone
to grow it for them or get it on the black market.
-
- That was the problem that led the Ontario Court of Justice
to declare the law unconstitutional and give the government six months
to fix it.
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- Health Canada is charging $20 for 20 seeds or $150 for
a 30-gram bag of dried grass. The product is grown by Prairie Plant Systems
at a mine in Flin Flon, Man.
-
- To qualify under the medical access program, people must
meet detailed medical requirements and get the endorsement of a doctor.
Many would-be users haven't been able to qualify.
-
- "What about the thousands of others?" asked
Alison Myrden, a woman who spoke from her wheelchair at a news conference
today.
-
- Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, chair of a Senate committee
that called for pot to be decriminalized, was highly critical of today's
announcement.
-
- "You can smell the bad faith of the government,"
said Nolin. "The government doesn't do anything but react. Thank goodness
for the courts."
-
- Although Rock and McLellan have both stressed the importance
of research into the medicinal value of marijuana, no studies have yet
been completed and only one is under way.
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