cannabisnews.com: Cannabis Confusion 





Cannabis Confusion 
Posted by CN Staff on July 22, 2003 at 08:39:41 PT
Editorial
Source: Edmonton Sun
It's become mandatory for pundits, when writing about the federal government's pot policy, to make the once-humourous but now cliched "What have the Liberals been smoking?" joke. But it's understandable. The latest head-scratcher is Health Canada's forthcoming user's manual on medical marijuana that reportedly instructs those who have access to the prescription pot not to smoke it! "Administration by smoking is not recommended," says the 59-page document. 
And a Health Canada official said, "We're not recommending, in fact, that marijuana be used." This follows on the heels of several other strange and bizarre undertakings by the Liberals on the pot file. A couple of months ago the Liberals unveiled a supposed decriminalization of marijuana that will still punish people for possessing up to 15 grams of pot, but will spare them a criminal record. The Grits' proposed crackdown on growers, however, will likely result in the black-market pot producers making even more money. What was ironic about that was that the push for legalized pot originated from chronically ill folks who wanted access to medicinal pot but didn't want to risk a criminal record. However, there was nothing in May's proposed pot-law changes (that still have to actually be passed into law) that addressed the medical marijuana issue per se. The Grits tried to alleviate that problem earlier this month by announcing that the government was in the marijuana business, and would sell bags of pot and seeds to sick patients who qualify under Ottawa's medical marijuana program. The ink was barely dry on the press release when the Canadian Medical Association urged its doctors not to become drug dealers for the feds. The CMA said it didn't support Ottawa's medical pot program for many reasons, including the lack of evidence of its efficacy. The feds might have been able to perhaps produce their own study on the usefulness of medical pot, but it's since been reported that Health Minister Anne McLellan shut down a $2-million study on medicinal pot that included clinical trials. Following this? The Grits propose to decriminalize pot possession, but add more penalties to growing. Then Ottawa grows its own and propose selling it to sick patients, who likely won't be able to get it from their doctors and, even if they do, are being instructed by the same government that gave them the pot not to use it! All that said, we're actually cutting the Liberals a bit of slack on this front, because the Grits are merely reacting to judicial rulings demanding changes in the pot laws. So it's no surprise that the Liberals have come up with a confusing and contradictory cannabis policy when the direction is being set by the courts. Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Published:  Tuesday, July 22, 2003Copyright: 2003 Canoe Limited PartnershipContact: letters edm.sunpub.comWebsite: http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtml Related Articles & Web Site:Health Canadahttp://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/Regret for Resignationshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16894.shtmlTurmoil Continues in Office of Medical Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16880.shtmlToronto MD Quits Medical Marijuana Committeehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16873.shtml Canada's Cannabis HIV/AIDS Study Suspendedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16643.shtml
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