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Canada: UN Convention Holds Up Medical Marijuana Shane Holladay Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Saturday 19 Jan 2002 Pot On Back Burner 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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