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.