- NOW
THAT MARIJUANA IS LEGAL FOR PAIN RELIEF
Not everyone was cheering as Canada
became the first country in the world to legalize
doctor-prescribed marijuana for people suffering
from terminal illnesses and chronic conditions
that produce severe pain.
Among those voicing worry was the Canadian
Medical Association. Police, too, must be
wondering about enforcing laws that apply to most
citizens, but not all. Still others perceive a
slippery legal slope that will lead to wider drug
use.
All that said, the newest amendment to the
Controlled Drugs and Substances
Act should be hailed as a useful step forward.
It was a step taken under pressure. An Ontario
Court of Appeal ruling last year, one in a string
of judgments sanctioning marijuana use for
patients with such grave ailments as HIV/AIDS,
multiple sclerosis, cancer and severe arthritis,
gave Ottawa until July 31 to create a legal
avenue for those patients to obtain their dope.
Under the new regulations, those patients may
grow marijuana for their own needs or have
someone else do it for them - including the
government. Hence the federally funded
underground marijuana-growing operation in Flin
Flon, in northern Manitoba, which over the next
five years expects to harvest a tonne of
medium-grade pot.
None of that crop will be available until fall at
the earliest. Until then, many of the roughly 300
individuals currently exempt from Canada's
cannabis-possession laws (500 more applications
are pending) will have to continue paying visits
to their friendly neighbourhood dealer.
Therein lies the first, immediate problem
identified by the CMA and other medical groups.
The Flin Flon product, when it comes onstream,
will have an expected THC content (the ingredient
that gets a person high) of 5 to 7 per
cent. On the street, however, THC levels are
often a guessing game. Thus, for now, the
physicians who authorize a sick patient's
marijuana use will effectively be approving a
drug of unknown strength.
Even when the state-sanctioned supply
materializes, the CMA notes, there will still be
a dearth of reliable data on marijuana's
long-term effects on the seriously ill,
particularly if those people are also ingesting
other drugs. Results from the first clinical
tests, in Toronto and Montreal, will not be
assessed until next year.
The new regulations, in sum, are the result of
court rulings rather than medical evidence. But
that doesn't mean those regulations are wrong.
They came about because judge after judge, in
court after court, was hearing the same
consistent message. Men and women with agonizing
illnesses stated that, yes, marijuana really does
ease the pain.
Agreed, there are plenty of unknowns in this
experiment, which is being watched closely from
around the world. At the same time, severe pain
is knowable. Ask anyone who has to live with it.
As for law enforcement, there is no disputing
that the new landscape creates difficulties and
may become more complicated still. Sooner or
later - probably sooner - a recreational
pot-smoker will be found to have lied to his or
her doctor, or in some other dishonest way tried
to secure exemption from the criminal law. And
when hundreds of kilos of state-grown pot start
appearing, it will be remarkable if a portion of
that is not diverted.
That's another good reason, we would argue, to
take the next logical step in this decades-old
debate. Decriminalize small-scale marijuana use
entirely, and stop saddling pot-smokers with
criminal records that last a lifetime. As with
this current, limited level of toleration,
opening such a door would create much
uncertainty. But as with these new regulations,
uncertainty is not necessarily the worst choice.
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