cannabisnews.com: Smoke Under Fire Smoke Under Fire Posted by CN Staff on October 06, 2003 at 08:17:26 PT By Karen Gram, Vancouver Sun Source: Vancouver Sun Phillipe Lucas is legally entitled to possess marijuana to cope with Hepatitis C, but getting it legally is about as tough as getting a drink from a prohibitionist.If you have chronic back pain, are undergoing chemotherapy or dealing with another medical condition and want to see if "medicinal marijuana" might help, bringing the option up with your family doctor might seem a little awkward. Actually getting the stuff, it turns out, is even harder. "The Office of Cannabis Medical Access is the biggest oxymoron there is," Lucas says. "It's not about access, it's all about denying or complicating access."According to Lucas, one third of the members on the advisory committee to the OCMA represent organizations opposed to marijuana access, organizations like the RCMP, Canadian Chiefs of Police, Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada and the Canadian Medical Association. Only two members are medicinal marijuana users. The bureaucracy they have set up is so onerous for sick or disabled people, it's hardly worth it, he says.Following the steps Lucas took to get access demonstrates the thicket that keeps patients from easy access -- medicinal marijuana may be technically legal, but it's far from an easy prescription to obtain.Like all others applying to get medicinal marijuana provided by the government, Lucas had to first be authorized to possess it. That required a lengthy bureaucratic procedure which he will have to repeat every year, even though his condition won't have changed. Hepatitis C is considered a category-three disease by the OCMA, neither terminal (category one), nor one of the specified diseases (category two), so Lucas had to get two specialists to fill out a very detailed application stipulating that the benefits of marijuana outweighed any risks and recommending a cannabis dosage. Few physicians are willing to do that, especially when the CMA and the colleges that licence doctors have both urged them not to."We are opposed to physicians distributing medical marijuana and in the vast majority of cases we are also opposed to physicians prescribing it," said BC Medical Association president-elect Dr. Jack Burak in an interview.Burak said distributing marijuana poses safety issues such as break-ins and violence for doctors while prescriptions should not be written for medicines in which the doctor can not be sure of the bio-availability or concentration of drug. "The prudent move would be to hold off until we have scientifically-based knowledge that this is efficacious and therapeutic," he said.Lucas was already using marijuana he purchased from the Vancouver Island Compassion Club, which he runs. But he wanted to be part of the legal system, under which his use of marijuana would be recognized as medicinal. Following the paperwork, he was able to convince two specialists to sign on, though he knows of other patients that have had a harder time accomplishing this task. He was also required to submit two passport photos signed by his doctor verifying his identity. As of August, 642 Canadians, 108 of them in B.C. including Lucas, had been granted authorization to possess. (Compassion Clubs, whose organic medicinal marijuana sales to sick and disabled Canadians are generally tolerated by police, serve eight times that number across Canada nearly 5,000, 3,000 of whom live in B.C.). Medicinal marijuana is still on the fringes of medical therapies but it's been gaining a great deal of attention throughout the world as ill people report how it relieves their pain and symptoms, enhances their appetite or helps them sleep. In Canada, Former Health minister Allan Rock spearheaded legislation permitting some ill Canadians to possess pot during the first years of the new millennium. Access and distribution was another story. Rock was replaced as health minister by Anne McLellan in January 2002 and she is not nearly as comfortable with medicinal marijuana as her predecessor. Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/lucas.htmSource: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)Author: Karen Gram, Vancouver Sun Published: Monday, October 06, 2003Copyright: 2003 Vancouver Sun Contact: sunletters pacpress.southam.caWebsite: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/Related Articles & Web Sites:Canadians for Safe Accesshttp://www.safeaccess.ca/Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmHealth Canada's Reefer Madnesshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17376.shtmlHealth Canada Medical Marijuana Could Be Betterhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17348.shtmlGovernment Cannabis Unfit for Humanshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17321.shtmlGovernment Pot's The Pits: Patients http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17316.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by FoM on October 06, 2003 at 16:59:35 PT Marc Paquette I wanted to say welcome to CNews. I know you are busy and I appreciate your input. Thank You! [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Marc Paquette on October 06, 2003 at 16:55:07 PT: The Only Hi WolfgangWylde;The highest authority in Canada is Parliament. The Supreme Court of Canada can say: "says so" on one day and the Parliament can say: "not so" the day after..only if they object.Peace http://www.medpot.net [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Marc Paquette on October 06, 2003 at 08:56:54 PT: Now, let's see why Health "Hell" Canada would Now..let's see why Hell Canada would want to hurt us... First, Exemptees in Canada are considered by Mrs McLellan and Minister of Justice Martin Cauchon as the "shame" of Canada towards the Bush Administration with Walters at the DEA, Ashcroft, Reno et al. Probibition of cannabis with it's Nazi tactics affects Canada's "exemptees" the most. We have absolutely no privacy from our government, and for some "exemptees" under the new law, undercover RCMP or DEA dressed as civils can barge in at your place any day, anytime, and without a warrant too! Who other people in Canada has to go through this government scrutiny? Did it have to be the "sick and dying"? Why is the DEA, RCMP, Canada and US secret services so strong at the MMAR department? Also, after almost 5 years of existance..on the 400,000 sick Canadians which admits to their physicians that they use marijuana for the relief of their conditions..how many people applied to Health "Hell" Canada's MMAR department? The answer..thousands. How many are we today..less than 600. Is this a good percentage in almost 5 years since the first exemptions? We already know for a fact that 15 died for sure without getting their doctor's prescribed relief..but how many more? This is a horrible crime and why should I be one of the few to beleive that this is BIG..much bigger than the Walkerton contaminated water scandal. It's a SCANDAL for us dealing with them..5 years in my case.Look at the MMAR "Category 1" which used to be easier to get when the specialist still wanted to sign an MMAR application. This Category is for people which has 1 year of life expectancy left. Category 2 requires requires 1 doctor and 1 specialist..these are for people that has Aids and cancer which has more than 1 year of life expectancy left and also for people with epilepsy, MS and severe and debilitating forms of arthritis. And finally, Category 3, which requires 1 doctor and 2 specialists. Hepatitis C which is a potentially deadly disease in it's chronic state and is now considered a Category 3 at the MMAR department. Fibromyalgia which has many of the same symptoms as MS, such as horrible muscles spasms and pain is also a Category 3.Why would they want to hurt us? Every time they want us to go through the hoops, loops, bowing and running to re-apply and re-qualify for an exemption..this situation discouraged so many that some of us had to give up our exemption. The stress imposed on us by them in the last years ruined the relations of many couples and families in our country. The stress imposed by them helped in accelerating many deaths. I know this for a fact! Ourlives are under scrutiny, stressed, shattred, controled and disposed of by these Hell Canada people. It has to end NOW! Please say a prayer so that we win this Tuesday morning at the Court of Appeal for Ontario in Parker et al. (Terry Parker, John Turmel, Marc Paquette, Hitzig and Brian McAllister)Peace,Marc [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by WolfgangWylde on October 06, 2003 at 08:41:19 PT The only... ...way cannabis will be legalized is if the Canadian Supreme Court does it. Coverage of the inaccessiblity of medical marijuana makes it more likely that the SC will strike down the law. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment