|
Canada:
Federal
Medical
Marijuana
Program
a
Flop,
AIDS
Society
Says
6/16/06
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/440/aflop.shtml
The Canadian government's
medical marijuana program is not working, the Canadian AIDS Society said
in . According to the report, only 1.7%
of Canadian medical marijuana patients take part in the government's program,
while 85% of them obtain their marijuana on the black market.
Although the Canadian government
has spent more than $5 million US on its program, fewer than 200 Canadians
are currently enrolled, the report found. The report is the culmination
of an 18-month project aimed at identifying barriers to access to medical
marijuana and the federal government's medical marijuana program.
The report points out a number
of obstacles to greater enrollment in the government plan, including lack
of awareness that it even exists, difficulties in finding physicians who
will cooperate by recommending marijuana, and the lack of good options
for an affordable, legal supply. Marijuana provided through the government
program is grown by a single contractor and is almost universally shunned
as low quality by patients. Taken together, these obstacles are an
absolute incentive for patients to turn to the black market, the report
said.
The AIDS Society report made
several recommendations to improve the program. The program should
be audited by the Auditor General to ensure it is using resources effectively,
the group said. Seriously ill Canadians and other interested parties
should be represented in a renewed Health Canada Stakeholders' Advisory
Committee to ensure their interests are heard. The country's hesitant
doctors' associations need to come on board as well, and the government
needs to back away from its efforts to restrict individual grows for patients
and community grows in the form of compassion clubs.
If Health Canada were to
heed the reasonable recommendations in this report, Canada's Medical Marijuana
Access Regulations could move from being the bad joke they have become.
-- END --
|
Issue #440
-- 6/16/06
Editorial:
Real
World
Consequences
|
Feature:
Death
Toll
Climbs
as
Fentanyl-Laced
Heroin
ODs
Spread
|
Feature:
Among
Whites,
Imprisoning
Drug
Users
a
Minority
Opinion,
Survey
Finds
|
Feature:
Industrial
Hemp
Push
Underway
in
California,
North
Dakota
|
Offer
and
Appeal:
Important
New
Legalization
Video
and
Drug
War
Facts
Book
Available
|
Book
Offer:
Burning
Rainbow
Farm:
How
a
Stoner
Utopia
Went
up
in
Smoke
|
Alert:
Important
Medical
Marijuana
Vote
Coming
Up
in
Congress
--
Your
Help
Needed
|
Follow-up:
Colombia
Amendment
Results
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Feedback:
Do
You
Read
Drug
War
Chronicle?
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Law
Enforcement:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
|
Search
and
Seizure:
Supreme
Court
Upholds
Searches
Without
Notice
|
Methamphetamine:
Epidemic?
What
Epidemic?
Study
Asks
|
Law
Enforcement:
Justice
for
Sale
in
Washington
Border
County
|
Europe:
New
Italian
Government
to
Move
to
"Reduce
Damage"
of
Tough
Drug
Law
|
Europe:
Britain
to
Reclassify
Methamphetamine
as
Class
A
Drug
|
Canada:
Federal
Medical
Marijuana
Program
a
Flop,
AIDS
Society
Says
|
Weekly:
This
Week
in
History
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Weekly:
The
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