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Canada: Health Canada proposes marijuana be treated like other medicines

Nam Tran

Digital Journal

Wednesday 19 Dec 2012

Health Canada has proposed that marijuana be treated more like other medicines, where its production and distribution can be commercialized.
If the proposal, Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR), is passed, it would discourage the illegal sales and production of the plant, while making it easier for patients to gain access to it, Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq said in a press release on Sunday.
“Current medical marijuana regulations have left the system open to abuse,” she said. “These changes strike the right balance between patient access and public safety.”
In the new system, patients with doctor prescriptions would shop at licensed grow-ops, whereas in the current system, patients have to apply for a permit from the government and then choose whether they want to grow it themselves or purchase the medicine from a single government grower.
In addition, if the MMPR is implemented, a regulated market of licensed pot growers would be created.
However, the prices of marijuana would increase in the new system, and individuals will not be able to grow cannabis themselves.
Currently, prices range from $1.80 to $5.00 a gram. In the new system, prices will increase to about $8.80 a gram, and you won’t be able to grow it yourself if you disagree with the price, a move which Adam Greenblatt, executive director of the Montreal-based Medical Cannabis Society (MCAS), believes is unfair.
“For many patients who grow their own, this is one step forward and two steps back,” he told CBC News.
But another concern –a much more vital one- with the new proposal is that it would leave physicians as the acting regulator of the herb, something that Dr. Anna Reid, the president of the Canadian Medical Association, isn’t comfortable with.
“There haven’t been any studies saying these are the risks versus the benefits. And we know there are risks. There are risks of psychosis. There are risks of problems with your lungs because you smoke it,” Reid told Postmedia News.
“We also know anecdotally that there are perceived benefits in terms of nausea and pain. But we don’t know what the balance is.”
Health Canada plans on putting the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations system to use by March 31, 2014. Health Canada’s 75-day questioning period will take in comments/questions until the end of February.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/339377#ixzz2FUD3rsZi

 

 

 

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