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Canada Makes Cannabis Legal
Damian Whitworth The Times
Tuesday 31 Jul 2001 CANADIANS were able to start using marijuana for medical purposes legally yesterday. New rules also provide for the worlds first government-run centre for cultivating the drug. A disused mineshaft in Manitoba has been given a licence to begin harvesting the plant for use by patients with terminal or chronic conditions. The regulations allow those who are granted permission to use the drug to grow it at home or designate others to supply them. With use of cannabis effectively decriminalised across much of Europe, Canada - along with the US and Britain - had become a target for law reform campaigners. US states have been moving towards allowing medical use of the drug but have been thwarted by a zero-tolerance approach at national level. Almost 300 Canadians had signed up for the new programme ahead of it becoming legal yesterday and tens of thousands of further applications are expected. The rules permit drug possession for the terminally ill with a prognosis of death within one year, patients with a number of serious medical conditions and those with other medical conditions who have statements from two doctors saying conventional treatments have not worked. Eligible patients include those with severe arthritis, cancer, HIV-Aids and multiple sclerosis. The government-licensed grower is Prairie Plant Systems, which has a contract worth $3.5million (?2.4million) to cultivate the crop in a former copper mine in the remote town of Flin Flon, Manitoba. The first harvest is expected this autumn. The company has successfully cultivated a range of plants from roses to tomatoes in greenhouses lit by powerful lamps 1,000ft below the surface. The company has found that crops grow faster and stronger underground because of increased carbon dioxide levels and the ease with which the environment is controlled by computers that regulate heat, light and humidity and ensure that the plants do not have to battle the elements. Thousands of T-shirts have been sold bearing the legend "Flin Flon, marijuana-growing capital of Canada". Others show a miner pushing a barrow while singing "Hi-ho! Hi-ho! It's off to work we go!" There have been some complaints that patients still have to overcome bureaucratic hurdles before they can obtain the drug. The Canadian Medical Association, which represents thousands of doctors, opposes the new regulations because they make doctors responsible for prescribing a drug which, it claims, lacks significant clinical research on its effects. Chuck Thomas of the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project said: "We're envious of Canadians having the luxury of complaining about the minutiae of the programme. It seems like a reasonable system." In America, just seven people have been given special exemptions to use marijuana legally . In March a House of Lords committee recommended legalisation of cannabis-based drugs - but not cannabis itself - for medical use in Britain and criticised the Medical Control Agency for delaying a decision on the issue. GW Pharmaceuticals is already cultivating plants in greenhouses in southern England in anticipation that it will receive a licence to produce a pain-relieving drug for multiple sclerosis sufferers. In many European countries the debate over medical marijuana has been rendered obsolete. The drug has been decriminalised in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Belgium and there are few prosecutions in France and Germany.
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