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Ottawa may allow sale of pot at pharmacies

By: Dean Beeby, Canadian Press, 04/28/03

Under pressure from the courts to reform its medical-marijuana policy, Health Canada is considering a Dutch option in which marijuana would be made available to needy patients at the corner pharmacy.

Senior Health Canada officials visited the Netherlands in February to learn more about a new law that allows pharmacies to distribute government marijuana to patients with doctors' prescriptions.

The law, which became effective on March 17, makes the Netherlands the first country to treat marijuana as an ordinary prescription drug.

"It's an option, like there are many options," said Beth Pieterson, a Health Canada official who met with her counterparts in Amsterdam from Feb. 18 to 21.

Ms. Pieterson, director-general of the drug-strategy and controlled-substances program, cautioned that no decisions have been made.

"Yes, we're looking at this, but we're looking at everything else, too," she said in an interview from Ottawa.

Health Canada allows approved patients to smoke marijuana to relieve illness symptoms such as pain and nausea. But there is no direct legal supply of the substance, forcing patients to buy it on the street or from growers who cultivate plants obtained from non-legal sources.

In January, Mr. Justice Sidney Lederman of Ontario's Superior Court declared the Marijuana Medicinal Access Regulations unconstitutional.

"Laws which put seriously ill, vulnerable people in a position where they have to deal with the criminal underworld to obtain medicine they have been authorized to take violate the constitutional right to security of the person," Judge Lederman wrote in a 40-page ruling.

He gave Ottawa until July 9 to fix the regulations or supply the pot itself. Health Canada has appealed the decision, but the deadline remains.

"We are working toward having the appeal heard, with the hope that the deadline would change," Ms. Pieterson said. But if Ottawa loses the appeal or cannot change the deadline, "we will be caught, and so we are looking at all our options."

The Dutch are promoting co-operation between the two countries on the medical-marijuana issue.

Willem Scholten, a Netherlands government official, visited Ottawa on March 14 to discuss providing Dutch cannabis to Health Canada, among other issues.

"To us this is interesting, too, because it gives some volume to our production," Mr. Scholten said in a Jan. 23 e-mail setting up the meeting. "Our growers have enough capacity."

The e-mail and related material were obtained under the Access to Information Act.

Health Canada has a $5.7-million contract with a company in Flin Flon, Man., that is growing certified marijuana for clinical trials only, but there have been production problems.

The Netherlands contracted out its marijuana production to several growers, who must turn over all their crop to the government.

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