cannabisnews.com: Red Tape Choking Pot Study





Red Tape Choking Pot Study
Posted by CN Staff on September 12, 2002 at 13:51:16 PT
By Lynn Moore, The Gazette 
Source: Montreal Gazette 
The medical-marijuana clinical trials required by federal Health Minister Anne McLellan could take more than five years to complete, according to the McGill University researcher whose groundbreaking study into pot and pain is entangled in red tape.In July 2001, McGill announced Dr. Mark Ware had received federal approval for Canada's first clinical study on marijuana and pain. The year-long study was to have begun at Montreal General Hospital in January.
"We haven't actually started yet," Ware said yesterday. A "series of requirements," including an import license to bring marijuana from the United States, have to be acquired, he said.Ware's peer-reviewed clinical trial - funded by a $235,000 grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, a branch of Health Canada - seeks scientific evidence of anecdotal claims about cannabis as a pain reliever. It would involve 32 patients suffering from acute, chronic pain.Although medical marijuana is a controversial matter, Ware insisted the delay isn't due to the nature of his study, but to his underestimation of the time required to get various approvals."This is a kind of bureaucratic necessity to protect the patients of Canada against any drug that's not high quality," he said.While the delay might dismay sick Canadians awaiting the legal right to smoke pot, more disconcerting is Ware's assessment that it could take five to 10 years to complete the pivotal clinical trials McLellan has required before the government will consider sanctioning marijuana as a medicine.Note: Lack of approvals has delayed Montreal General clinical trials.Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.canada.com/montreal/news/story.asp?id=8F16E453-DA39-4284-B907-E2A3FE95CEECSource: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)Author: Lynn Moore, The Gazette Published: Thursday, September 12, 2002Copyright: 2002 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.Contact: letters thegazette.southam.caWebsite: http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/Related Articles:Ottawa Making ‘Mess’ of Medical Marijuana Issue http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13990.shtmlThe Flin Flon Flip-Flophttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13958.shtmlHow To Stall On Medicinal Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13823.shtml 
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Comment #8 posted by idbsne1 on September 13, 2002 at 13:41:41 PT
Screw Marc Emery....
Sorry....but the truth is.....Those seeds in the Flin Flon mine were Steven Tuck's genetics. Health Canada, Steve, and the RCMP made an arrangement to "confiscate" Steve's seeds....really he was just donating them to HC. Out of compassion for the sick. As he did to thousands in Humboldt. Now the Health Ministry is stalling...Anne is a lying, slick, conniving b*tch. Every step she takes is backwards... in the guise of being "safe and responsible" to Canadian citizens.The truth is, Steve's genetics are the BEST IN THE WORLD. His seeds on www.legendsseeds.com under hillbilly dreams are selling out ALL OVER EUROPE. He will have his strain "Herijuana" in the Cannabis Cup next year hopefully. Most of that pot in Flin Flon is the best in the world. No joke. The best of Humboldt and Amsterdam.Marc has offered to be the supplier of seeds, so that he can use the publicity to his favor. Nothing else. Actually, the seeds Marc would give them, wouldn't be good genetics anyway, because as people who have worked for him have told me... he doesn't even send you the seeds you order all the time... just what's on the shelf....This isn't trolling or spam... just the truth...and I'd hope all the fine folks here would like that.BTW, JR, there was a study using the patients of the Federal program... and I believe it was our friend Dr. Russo that conducted it... the Chronic Use Study?All that good medicine going to waste. All those sick people that are going to suffer.Do people nowadays even pay attention to their sins?idbsne1
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Comment #7 posted by RavingDave on September 12, 2002 at 20:09:42 PT
What the Hell?!?
A "series of requirements," including an import license to bring marijuana from the United States, have to be acquired, he said.Have you people gone completely mental? You live in Canada, with some of the best cannabis in the entire world, and you need an import license to get it from the U.S.? What for, some of that delicious ditchweed they're using in their studies?Marc Emery, seed-magnate and publisher of Cannabis Culture, has volunteered free seeds for use in the government program, and you want to import it. You are either clinically insane, or you think that people are clearly too stupid to catch on to your smoke screen. Then again, you may be right on that point.Aaargh!
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Comment #6 posted by mayan on September 12, 2002 at 17:09:11 PT
Stall If You Want...
...but cannabis will be completely legalized for all Canadians over 16 long before McLellan & her cronies complete any trials!!!
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Comment #5 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on September 12, 2002 at 16:32:20 PT
A quick Thursday evening LTE
Sirs,  The potential five to ten year delay surrounding Dr. Mark Ware's clinical cannabis study would be a lot less troublesome if we didn't have a drug war going on in the meantime. Unless the law is changed during the five to ten years this study will take, many more Canadians will be arrested over this benign plant, and medical patients will be denied safe access to it. Many of these medical patients can't wait five to ten years - what good is pain relief when you're dead?  One thing which was noticeably absent from this article is any mention of the US patients who have been recieving medical marijuana from the US Government for decades. Isn't there enough data collected from these legal exemptees?  Only after the war on marijuana users is over will the subject be released from stigma and red tape, and real research can be conducted in a free and open atmosphere. Until then, governments will sponsor more and more "research" as a stalling tactic. How much more research is really needed before we know for sure that locking up people for what they put in their own bodies is an absurd social policy?
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Comment #4 posted by p4me on September 12, 2002 at 16:06:05 PT
This crap really stinks
It is all but unbelievable isn't it? There are millions of people that have AIDS that would take rat poison if it would help with their nausea, wasting syndrome, and neuropathy, but the federal government of Canada won't even break out the waiver forms for something that hundreds of people use and their ancestors used. Just how high do they think they can stack this crap before it falls over on them.Maybe the Supreme Court will put an end to the nonsense. x-ile has posted the following message at the DE messageboard on Colin Davies trial:the DE trial - day 4Roo still ill and not at court today, so the prosecution case still hasn't started (some legal technicality that Roo has to be there when the charges are read out to the jury I think). We'd been sent home by lunchtime in the hope that we can finally get going tomorrow. One bit of good news is that the prosecution should only take 4 days (their estimate) so the trial MAY be over sooner than we thought (3 weeks once we start rather than 4 or 5!).Judge Fish wanted to know when Roo was likely to be fit so he asked the dewfence legal team to get a prognostication - quickly corrected to prognosis (was he getting mixed up with lawyers procrastinations?).Colin is still on good form though obviously frustrated at even more delays before the trial proper starts. The DEfendants appear to have settled into the dock nicely, enjoying the chance to spend time with each other.Good to see a variety of faces outside/inside court - you know who you are!Why has no-one reported the trial yet? Because nothings happened I suppose - maybe tomorrow....Billy Barker
news'ound1,2
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Comment #3 posted by Ethan Russo MD on September 12, 2002 at 14:45:34 PT:
Strange
Here is the rest of the article:Even multimillion-dollar drug empires spend years getting a drug approved for use, Ware noted.Before pot can be approved, various phases of testing are required, including large clinical trials with very specific pre-determined criteria and a large numbers of patients, he said. "Our study, important as it may be, is being perceived (by the public as well as public officials) as giving definitive answers, but this is a pilot study" involving a small number of people using small amounts of the drug for a short period, he said.Alex Swann, a spokesman for McLellan, agreed yesterday that Ware's pilot project, along with another clinical trial involving HIV patients in Toronto, were but first steps in a process requiring broad-based clinical trials.Those trials "haven't been designed yet ...so I can't speak to the time line those trials would take," he said.McLellan's predecessor, Allan Rock, unveiled a policy to provide chronic-pain sufferers and terminally ill patients with the right to smoke marijuana legally. During Rock's tenure, an abandoned mine in Flin Flon, Man., was converted into a marijuana farm to supply medicinal pot. McLellan rejected the crop, saying there were too many variations in the harvest to do clinical trials.*******************************************************Mark Ware is a terrific person who is doing his best to see this thing through despite innumerable difficulties. He essentially left the UK to return to Canada expressly to do these studies.It seems now that Health Canada is abandoning the Flin Flon material (10-12% THC) entirely, in favor of NIDA's interpretation of marijuana (4% or less THC with stems and seeds retained, see: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/debris.jpg which depicts the debris from 3 such cigarettes).I hate to say this, but it is entirely possible, even likely, that NIDA will not agree to supply the material at all to Canada. Should they micro-manage even one word of the experimental protocol, Mark will have to run it through every echelon of prior review once more.Are you getting the idea here? This helps explain why there is so precious little clinical cannabis research available to offer as "proof" of efficacy. Certain parties are ensuring that none is accomplished.What is needed here is a little light from further abroad. Watch for big things from the UK soon.
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Comment #2 posted by TroutMask on September 12, 2002 at 14:43:13 PT
BS Alert!
"series of requirements," including an import license to bring marijuana from the United States...Oh great! What this tells me is that in order to comply with the international War on Drugs treaties (whatever they're called), they can only study marijuana from an approved source and the only approved source is the US and the US source is perportedly schwag! So they have to jump through tons of hoops and piles of red tape to test the effectiveness of brown dirt-weed grown by the US government. On the plus side: The Canadian Supreme Court won't like this if it's relavent to upcoming cases.-TM 
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Comment #1 posted by schmeff on September 12, 2002 at 14:29:26 PT
Isn't it remarkable?
It will take 5 to 10 years to get govt. sanction for a natural herb that mankind has been using for 2000+ years......yet genetically engineered foodstuff, containing newly minted DNA sequences never before found in nature, can be included in our diets without even the requirement to be identified or labeled.Clearly, the issue of 'safety' is a red herring.
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