cannabisnews.com: Get Ready To Dispense Pot, Pharmacists Told





Get Ready To Dispense Pot, Pharmacists Told
Posted by FoM on July 12, 2001 at 10:44:49 PT
By Pamela Fayerman, Vancouver Sun 
Source: Vancouver Sun 
Pharmacists across Canada should be preparing to dispense medicinal marijuana, learning what information to give users about proper doses, side effects and potential interactions, a pharmacist at the B.C. Cancer Agency is advising professional colleagues. Robin O'Brien, who also teaches pharmacy students at the University of B.C., said she's not necessarily an advocate of medicinal marijuana, just a pragmatist who believes that since the federal government is now sanctioning marijuana use for certain ill people, it should hand over the dispensing duties to professionals who can give patients "expert counselling." 
On July 30, new Health Canada regulations will come into effect to protect certain patients with chronic or terminal illnesses against marijuana-related prosecution. Such patients may apply for permission to grow, possess and use marijuana to relieve symptoms including pain, nausea and poor appetite. Once patients have proven they are eligible for marijuana, they have to grow it themselves or find a designate to do it for them. "But this unfairly puts the onus on patients to find the drug, a situation that is lamentable considering some of these patients might be too frail to grow their own or simply may not live long enough to harvest their own crop," says the current Pharmacy Practice professional trade journal, which published O'Brien's lengthy treatise on the pharmacokinetics, dynamics, clinical effects, toxicity and other information on marijuana. O'Brien said it is unrealistic to expect terminally ill people to suddenly become gardeners and grow their own marijuana. "That's silly and unworkable. How we can expect people with less than 12 months to live to grow their own, or to know how to obtain good seeds and buds?" she said. Hilary Black, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Compassion Club, a non-profit organization that sells organically grown marijuana to registered users, said she agrees the current plan for users to grow their own pot is ill-advised. "We don't expect people to make their own penicillin so why would we expect them to do grow their own cannabis?" She said she doesn't oppose pharmacists being allowed to dispense marijuana as long as the government doesn't give them the exclusive rights to it. "No one should have the monopoly on distribution and we want to protect the right of people to access the whole plant and pharmacies won't be selling that." Health Canada spokeswoman Roslyn Tremblay said in an interview from Ottawa Wednesday that the government has not yet figured out how it will distribute the drug once it is cultivated in a government-appointed growing operation situated in a former underground mine in Flin Flon, Man. But she said pharmacists are not yet being considered as an option because "we're only talking about something that is at the research stage." "All the touted benefits of marijuana are purely anecdotal at this point and we intend to spend five years researching it. So it's not a therapeutic product yet," she said. Nearly 300 Canadians have been granted permission to use marijuana for medicinal reasons and next January, when that number is undoubtedly much higher, the government and its subcontractor, Saskatoon-based Prairie Plant Systems, will start shipping rolled marijuana cigarettes made in Flin Flon to such people. Tremblay said the distribution and shipping details have not yet been worked out nor has the cost of the drug for those who purchase it from the government. "This is very much a new program with growing pains, there are no plans yet, nothing carved in stone," she said. Initially, the plant plans on cultivating 185 kg of marijuana in the first year and 420 kg in the second year. The government is funding nearly $8 million in research projects and clinical trials. O'Brien said she and Vancouver palliative care Dr. Romayne Gallagher have a proposal in mind for one such trial. Linda Lytle, registrar of the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons, said she thinks it will be some time before people will be able to walk into a London Drugs or Zeller's pharmacy to buy their medicinal marijuana. "But if the federal regulations proceed in the direction they are moving, I can envision marijuana being added to the list of controlled drugs and substances, much the same as pain killers like demerol, codeine and morphine," she said. The new Health Canada regulations are coming into effect because of a legal ruling in Ontario that declared Canada's marijuana laws unconstitutional. The court gave the government until July 31 to establish a new regulatory process allowing Canadians to use the drug for medical purposes when conventional treatment has failed. The regulations apply to people with less than a year to live; those suffering from AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, severe arthritis or epilepsy and any others who have been advised by two medical specialists to use the herbal weed. Applications must be signed by doctors who indicate the benefits of using marijuana outweigh the risks, something many doctors have complained about because there is an abundance of anecdotal evidence, but less scientific proof of marijuana's therapeutic value. O'Brien said many oncologists get asked by patients about the drug, so a decade ago, she began researching what has been reported. "The cancer information line refers calls here from people who have tried it and found it to be useful for their nausea. They're tired of taking pills and find that one or two puffs of marijuana is all that's needed for relief of their chemotherapy-related nausea," she said. She used to advise patients at the cancer agency who asked her about where to get marijuana to ask their kids or grandchildren. But four years ago, the Vancouver Compassion Club was formed in east Vancouver and since then, she has referred patients there for more information. The non-profit club, at Commercial and 14th Ave., sells organically grown marijuana to registered users for anywhere from $4 to $10 a gram. About 1,500 people are current members, after having their doctors sign forms attesting to their diagnosis and interest in the drug. O'Brien said she hopes pharmaceutical companies can come up with a medicinal form of marijuana that doesn't have to be smoked to prevent users from the tar and risk of lung cancer. While lung cancer is not as much of a concern for palliative patients, there are people with chronic diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, who may want to use the drug over a long period. "I'd be very happy if someone developed a sublingual form a pill which melts under the tongue," she said. Note: Medicinal marijuana should be handled like any other drug, B.C. expert says.Complete Title: Get Ready To Dispense Pot, Canada's Pharmacists ToldSource: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)Author: Pamela Fayerman, Vancouver Sun Published: Thursday, July 12, 2001Copyright: The Vancouver Sun 2001Contact: sunletters pacpress.southam.caWebsite: http://www.vancouversun.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Health Canadahttp://www.hc-sc.gc.ca FTE's Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmCanadians To Get Licenses To Smoke Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10229.shtmlFeds Get Off on Medical Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10221.shtmlCannabisNews Articles - Canadahttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=canada 
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Comment #3 posted by jorma nash on July 12, 2001 at 13:34:03 PT
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"All the touted benefits of marijuana are purely anecdotal at this point and we intend to spend five years researching it. So it's not a therapeutic product yet," she said.and, rest assured when that five years of research comes to all the politically incorrect conclusions,(like every other five year study in the past fifty years)we will study it again, and again,until we finally come to the correct conclusions.in the meantime, of course, it is highly therapeuticto drag sick people to prison to die, for daring to decide what to put into thier own bodies."study it long enough and hopefully the issue will go away"still lingers in the United States of Undeclared Martial Law,but i don't think its going to fly too much longer in Canada.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 12, 2001 at 11:59:24 PT
Jack
Hi Jack, Is the phone number your number? I just wanted to make sure. Thanks, FoM
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Comment #1 posted by jack(301)779-9256 on July 12, 2001 at 11:09:53 PT
O'Brians hopes already fulfilled
In the story above is the following passage:  "O'Brien said she hopes pharmaceutical companies can  come up with a medicinal form of marijuana that doesn't  have to be smoked to prevent users from the tar and risk  of lung cancer."  Perhaps O'Brien never heard of Brownies??Perhaps instead of "pharmaceutical" companieswe need bakery companies?
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