NORML E-Zine
Volume 5
Issue 33
August 29, 2002

The NORML E-Zine is a free weekly compilation of major news items
regarding marijuana policy. Text of archived stories is available on
NORML's website at:
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3442

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TOP STORIES

* Canada: Health Minister Announces Indefinite Lockdown On
Medical Marijuana
* 30,000 Californians Using Medicinal Marijuana Legally, Study Says

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Canada: Health Minister Announces Indefinite Lockdown On
Medical Marijuana
Former Health Minister Blasts The Government's About Face: Sick
Canadians Shouldn't Have To "Take Marching Orders From Washington, DC"

Ottawa, Ontario: Government plans to distribute medicinal marijuana to
nearly 1,000 federally approved patients and a pair of federally funded
research studies remain on hold indefinitely, according to statements made
recently by Health Minister Anne McLellan.

Despite harvesting 250 kilograms of marijuana last December, McLellan
announced last week that Health Canada has no intention of releasing it to
qualified patients until after the completion of clinical trials.

However, McLellan made no mention of the fact that a pair of medical
marijuana trials approved and granted funding by Health Canada over 12
months ago have also yet to receive any of the government-grown pot.

NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup called McLellan's announcement a
U.S.-inspired stall tactic. "It appears that the Canadian government is
following the U.S. playbook," Stroup said. "Allege marijuana has no
medical value, and then refuse to allow any research that would challenge
that assumption."

McLellan further conceded that she is uncomfortable with any notion of
Canadians using marijuana as a medicine, and said she hopes the Supreme
Court eventually rules on the matter. However, no cases regarding the use
of medicinal marijuana are pending before the court.

McLellan's position is in contrast to that of her predecessor, former
Health Minister Allan Rock, who oversaw the establishment of Canada's
medical marijuana program in 2001. Under Rock's plan, qualified patients
would be allowed to legally use marijuana medicinally, and also be able to
obtain it from the federal government. (Health Canada is currently paying
a private company $5.7 million dollars to grow marijuana for research
purposes.) Since then, over 850 Canadians have qualified to receive
marijuana.

"The ... track we were on was speedy access to [a] quality supply," Rock
said in response to McLellan. "If it's right to say they should have
access [to medicinal marijuana,] then its right to provide them with
lawful and safe material, and that means somebody has got to produce it,
and that to me looks like the role of the government."

Rock said that it was his intention when he designed the program to have
Health Canada supply marijuana to qualified patients while clinical trials
were taking place. In July 2001, Health Canada approved an estimated $1.1
million in funding for a pair of studies investigating the effect of
smoked marijuana on the AIDS wasting syndrome and neuropathic pain.
Neither of those studies has begun. Both are awaiting pot from Health
Canada.

An assistant deputy minister for Health Canada told The Toronto Star that
the Canadian government's about-face on the medical pot issue is likely
due to pressure from U.S. bureaucrats who oppose the use of marijuana as a
medicine. Allan Rock, now Minister of Industry, said that Health Canada
should make no concessions in their pot laws to appease U.S.
policy-makers.

"The conclusion that I came to was that we can't base our policy on
social issues like this on American standards, especially in an area where
they're very conservative," he said. "We weren't, after all, talking
about legalizing the drug. We were talking about compassionate access,
and I just didn't think it was appropriate to take marching orders from
Washington, DC."

For more information, please contact Keith Stroup or Paul Armentano of
NORML at (202) 483-5500.

__________________________________________________________________
30,000 Californians Using Medicinal Marijuana Legally, Study Says

San Francisco, CA: An estimated 30,000 California patients possess
physician's recommendations to use pot medicinally, according to the
results of a study to be published in The Journal of Cannabis
Therapeutics. California NORML conducted the study, which surveyed
numerous statewide patient support groups, local registration programs and
physicians.

California is one of nine states that allow the use of medicinal
marijuana under a doctor's supervision. California voters approved the
law in 1996.

According to the survey's findings, California has the highest
concentration of medical pot patients in the country at 89 patients per
100,000. In other states, medical marijuana users comprise much smaller
percentages of the population, ranging from 79 patients per 100,000 in
Oregon to a low of 3 patients per 100,000 in Colorado. A total of 5,000
medical pot patients are estimated to be using medicinal marijuana legally
outside of California.

"Under current federal law, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I
substance, meaning it has no currently accepted medical use in the United
States," said Dale Gieringer, who authored the survey. "However, the
growing numbers of medical marijuana patients and physicians suggest this
classification is obsolete."

Over 1,500 California doctors have recommended marijuana to a patient,
the survey found.

Currently, medical marijuana users represent only one percent of the
state's total marijuana using population, Gieringer said. A previous
nationwide survey of Canadians by Health Canada found that more than four
percent of the population over age 15 uses marijuana therapeutically.

For more information, please contact either Dale Gieringer, California
NORML Coordinator, at (415) 563-5858 or Allen St. Pierre, Executive
Director of The NORML Foundation, at (202) 483-8751. The Journal of
Cannabis Therapeutics is available online at:
http://www.acmed.org/english/home.htm


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