Medical Marijuana: Contrasting Perspectives in Canada and the US

In Canada, Health Canada is poised to start distribution of marijuana to certain patients in conjunction with a User's Manual on how to use the drug.   Health Canada's activist role has been thrust upon it by a ruling by the Ontario Superior Court that to deny the drug to suffering patients infringes their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.   (See Hitzig v. Canada (2003), 171 CCC (3d) 18 for the decision). The User's Manual warns against smoking the substance and gives the user notice of potential panic attacks, psychosis and convulsions in some cases.   Produced by federally-contracted Prairie Plant Systems in Flin Flon, Manitoba, marijuana will be distributed through physicians in 30-gram bags at a cost of $5 per gram.   However, distribution could come to a quick halt if the federal government is successful in its pending appeal of the Hitzig decision. By contrast, the US federal government is currently seeking to prohibit doctors from even recommending marijuana to their patients - prescribing it is already prohibited.   The US federal government is appealing to the Supreme Court the ruling of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Conant v. Walters, which held that doctors who recommend the use of marijuana to their patients could not be prosecuted. In the 1990s, several American States passed laws permitting the prescribing of marijuana for ill patients. In response, federal regulations were passed to prohibit such prescriptions and also to prohibit the mere recommendation of the drug.   The regulations prohibiting prescription of the drug were subsequently upheld in United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers Coop. For more information, visit: http://makeashorterlink.com/?B32012075; or http://writ.news.findlaw.com/aronson/20030716.html. Summary by:   Lenni Carreiro