Health Canada

[Joolz]

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n089/a02.html

Newshawk: puff_tuff

Pubdate: Sat, 19 Jan 2002

Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)

Copyright: 2002, Canoe Limited Partnership.

Contact: letters@edm.sunpub.com

Website: http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtml

Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135

Author: Shane Holladay, Edmonton Sun

Note: This item is causing much discussion on the Canadian MAP (CMAP)

action

discussion list http://www.mapinc.org/cmap/  Did the reporter

actually

confirm a delay with an authoritive Health Canada source, or is

this really

just the opinion of a UN spokesman? Experts tend to agree that

Canada has

the authority to decide what is medicine under the treaty

without proving

anything to the UN. There is nothing on the Health Canada

website http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/media/releases/2001/2001_73e.htm

which indicates any concern at all about the UN Conventions. In fact this

.pdf  Health Canada document makes it clear that they accept that the

conventions

allow medical use

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/media/releases/2001/2001_73e.htm

A superb

drug policy review written for the current Canada Senate hearings

discusses

this subject at http://cfdp.ca/sen1841.htm  If there is anything

to this

story at all, it should be big news in Canada - newshawks please

watch for

the story from other sources.

Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

Pot On Back Burner

UN CONVENTION HOLDS UP MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Marijuana exemptees looking to score government stash will have to

wait at least a year while Health Canada - in compliance with a UN

convention - tries to prove pot is a medically sound alternative.

Health Canada officials have said they're working on a private, secure

and internationally legal plan to distribute marijuana to medical exemptees.

The holdup is the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, said

Kemal Kurspahic, spokesman for the UN's Office for Drug Control and

Crime Prevention.

The convention allows countries to use banned drugs only if they're

for scientific or medical purposes, he said.

"While using marijuana for medical purposes could not be excluded, the

scientific research in several countries so far has not produced

conclusive evidence of medical usefulness of marijuana," said

Kurspahic. Studies would have to be supported by a respected body, he

added.

"As long as there is no scientific evidence approved, for example, by

the World Health Organization, marijuana remains listed among strictly

controlled substances as stated in the convention."

Health Canada is backing research at Montreal's McGill pain centre,

which spokesman Chantal Beauregard said would be complete in a year.

"It's the first of its kind in Canada," she said. "It's to determine

if marijuana is an effective pain reliever for chronic pain sufferers."

The project will likely begin in March, Beauregard

said.

Health Canada spokesman Paige Raymond Kovach said the study at McGill

is part of the government's efforts to establish the value of

marijuana in treating chronic pain.

"We're working on it. More information is required and that's what

we're working on."

Ultimately, Canada has jurisdiction over its own domestic affairs,

said John Conroy, a Vancouver lawyer who has handled high-profile

marijuana constitutional challenges.

Canada's Constitution bars it from entering into an international

agreement that violates its citizens' constitutional rights, he said.

"Our government can't enter into something it doesn't have the power

to enter into," said Conroy.

Since a number of decisions have established the right of Canadians to

use pot for medical uses, they can't be denied the drug by

international treaties, he said.

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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake