cannabisnews.com: Backtracking on Marijuana Serves No One





Backtracking on Marijuana Serves No One
Posted by CN Staff on August 23, 2002 at 21:03:15 PT
By Greg Neiman, Advocate Staff
Source: Red Deer Advocate 
Toronto lawyer Alan Young has the picture right: Anne McLellan, Canada’s health minister, is either “confused, or she’s being disingenuous,” relating her discomfort with allowing people with epilepsy, terminal cancer, or chronic pain legal access to marijuana.When you consider the group to whom McLellan shared her discomfort — the Canadian medical establishment — you could include doctors in the group of confused and disingenuous.
There are several points upon which McLellan’s comments can be said to increase the pain of people suffering from incurable, debilitating and agonizing diseases — all for the comfort and profit of drug companies and doctors who are paid to prescribe ever more expensive (and debatably less effective) relief.First is the issue of the law. Mclellan should know — she used to be the federal justice minister, after all — that the courts have roundly struck down pot possession laws for people who use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Courts in Ontario and Alberta have repeated that they will not enforce laws that place people in agony.In fact, the current situation in law stems from the federal government being given a court deadline to either change possession laws for people using marijuana for medical relief of pain and suffering, or the courts would simply cease to enforce any part of the laws restricting use of marijuana. They were given 12 months to act and they did.Thus, the next point: the government has a $5.7-million project to grow and distribute marijuana to select patients for the next four years.Enter the doctors. Their national association has told its members not to sign any formal patient requests to receive any of the 400 kg of medicinal pot the federal government is having grown each year, specifically for this use. Just the same, more than 800 patients have qualified under the government’s rules for the special program. However, it’s doubtful any of them will be given the drug, due to the medical association’s pressure and Mclellan’s personal discomfort.Imagine this: some of them are now turning to the courts to force the uncomfortable McLellan to do as the courts demanded, and to release the drug to them.Too bad her discomfort counts for more than the agony of someone who has multiple epileptic seizures every day and for whom marijuana offers the only relief available. Or the suffering of someone dying of cancer, for whom only marijuana will give relief from the horrific effects of chemotherapy.Mclellan, the person in charge of the government’s anti-tobacco campaign, doesn’t want to send the message that a person with liver cancer, say, should be confused by a message that it’s OK to smoke. What a big, fat, stinking red herring.The doctors, for their part, say they don’t want to expose themselves to lawsuits for prescribing an untested drug. Baloney. Untested drugs are given all the time to patients in dire straits, who knowingly sign the appropriate releases. And these newly-developing drugs and procedures don’t have near the overwhelming weight of anecdotal evidence of efficacy that marijuana has.Unfortunately, what marijuana doesn’t have is profit potential for drug companies.Therein lies the biggest rub of all.It is impossible not to conclude that since the federal grow program began, as a result of the courts telling the government their laws stink and they won’t enforce them anymore, that a massive lobbying campaign of pressure on doctors and the government is causing some “sober” second thoughts.Far be it for this column to counsel people — toward whom both the government and the doctors have turned their backs — to break the law and seek relief in illegal sources of marijuana. That would be disrespect for the law, disrespect for doctors and disrespect for the federal government — all of which are leaving this small group of vulnerable people at the extreme edge of suffering.We wouldn’t do that. They’ll have to think of ways to do that themselves, and invite yet more court intervention. Pity.Newshawk: puff_tuffSource: Red Deer Advocate (CN AB)Author: Greg Neiman, Advocate StaffPublished: August 21, 2002Copyright: 2002 Red Deer AdvocateContact: editorial advocate.red-deer.ab.caWebsite: http://www.reddeeradvocate.com/Related Articles:Potpourri http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13857.shtmlFlin Flon Mine Questions Pot-Growing Futurehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13844.shtmlSquabbles Erupt Over Policyhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13824.shtmlHow To Stall On Medicinal Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13823.shtml 
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Comment #2 posted by WolfgangWylde on August 25, 2002 at 08:32:50 PT
Personally, I think Canadian medical marijuana ...
...advocates have been played for suckers, particularly in Ottawa. I can think of no better way to sum up the situation than the following quote from Richard Cowan's site:"To make matters even worse, she (McLellan) should also know that – over two years ago -- while she was Justice minister, the Canadian government did not appeal a ruling by an Ontario court – that the cannabis possession laws would be null in Canada’s largest province, if the Canadian government did not provide a legal way for patients to get cannabis within one year. The government obviously has not done so, and does not appear to have any intention of doing so, but I have no idea why it is still illegal in Ontario for anyone to possess cannabis." 
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Comment #1 posted by puff_tuff on August 23, 2002 at 21:39:20 PT
Editorial
This is actually an Editorial, it also appeared in the Stratford Beacon Herald, The (CN ON)today.Minister’s discomfort vs. agony of patients 
http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/editorials/editorial.htmlIt has this note with it;This editorial originally appeared in The Red Deer (Alberta) Advocate and was made available to The Beacon Herald through the Canadian Press editorial exchange.I hope they spread it far and wide.
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