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Don’t block options
By Hempology | August 26, 2002
From the Weekend Edition, August 23rd, 2002
By Brian Dryden
A furor has erupted in the pro medical marijuana community about federal Health Minister
Anne McLellan’s comments to the Canadian Medical Association that she feels
“uncomfortable” with the idea of the government supplying a smokeable substance to patients,
when the federal government is responsible for a huge anti-smoking lobby.
But for local AIDS, cancer and other chronically ill individuals in the Greater Victoria
area who take advantage of local compassion clubs that supply pot to the ill, what would
change if Health Canada was to all of a sudden say it won’t be distributing pot until
clinical trials are undertaken and completed on the crop from its one supplier, Prarie
Plant Systems in Flin Flon, Man.?
Outside of some major errors in judgement by so-called members – buying the pot allegedly
for medical reasons then re-selling it under the nost of police, actions that have seen
the police step in – the activities and distribution chain set up by the Cannabis Buyers’
Club and the Vancouver Island Compassion Club have gone on with relatively little
interruption from law enforcement agencies here.
Such clubs were originally set up in defiance of federal laws relating to marijuana
possession and distribution, yet they have became a mainstay of alternative health
services in many communities across Canada and in the United States, where when
residents in states in that country are asked if they support marijuana use as medicine,
more often than not vote yes in state-wide votes even if their very on U.S. federal
government does everything in its power to thwart their will as expressed through a
ballot box.
It is unclear exactly how many people in the Capital Region are on Health Canada’s
exemption list, one that allows them to legally use marijuana to ease their pain and
suffering.
Nationally, slightly more than 800 people have made it onto that list. Compared to how
many people in this country have terminal illnesses or chronic pain and would do almost
anything to relieve their symptoms, the number is extremely small. Add in the fact that
none of those people have received one thin joint under the government program and one
wonders just how devoted the fed’s were in making it work, even before the seemingly
confused McLellan took her new post earlier this summer.
Former Health Minister Allan Rock’s Liberal party leadership aspiration may have
played a part in his decision this week to one-up McLellan and say they when he was
in charge, his department was ready to distribute pot while trials were going on.
After hearing the feds have their say on the issue, local medical pot advocate Ted Smith
gave out a few theories of his own about the whole government distribution idea. One is that
doctors and politicans are causing people in pain further suffering by slowing down the
process of what appears to be the inevitable legalization of marijuana, if not only for
medical purposes but for all users.
No doubt, many who use pot to ease their pain will wonder if any when they can sign up
for trials. But even if they don’t get a chance, they will still likely have the option
of taking comfort by using the services of compassion clubs. The question is whether those
options will be narrowed, or even eliminated, by a federal health department that seems
rather paranoid and a little fuzzy-headed on the issue.
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