Canada legalises the compassionate joint for chronic and terminally ill
Special report: drugs
Sarah Boseley, health editor Tuesday July 31, 2001 The Guardian
Canada yesterday became the first country in the world to legalise the use of cannabis for medical purposes, allowing those with chronic and terminal illnesses to grow their own and to smoke, inhale in some other way or eat the drug as they prefer.
Under pressure from people with conditions such as multiple sclerosis who say cannabis brings them relief, the UK government has agreed to scientific trials to establish whether it has medical benefits and how it - or extracts of it - can be taken without smoking, which itself damages health.
But the Canadian government has taken the greater leap and allowed people whose doctors certify they have certain conditions to roll a legal joint. The move drew immediate criticism from doctors who want proper research into efficacy and the dose needed, and the Marijuana Party of Canada which argues that legalising the drug altogether would be a lot less bureaucratic.
Those with terminal illnesses - with the expectation of only a year to live - and those with certain specified conditions will be eligible for the weed, if their doctor and two other experts sign the legal forms. The conditions include Aids, arthritis, cancer, MS, epilepsy and degenerative muscle and bone illnesses.
The patients will be allowed to grow their own cannabis or have someone grow it for them. It will still be illegal for anyone else to produce or sell cannabis, but that could change. The Canadian supreme court has agreed to hear arguments that criminalisation of cannabis is unconstitutional, on the grounds that it poses no significant health risk.
The Canadian government is also pushing forward with research. In a mineshaft, deep below a lake in Flin Flon, Manitoba, a government-funded cannabis plantation has been established with tighter security than the Canadian lab that stores the deadly and highly contagious Ebola virus.
The plantation, which is bigger than three football pitches, is expected to produce 185kg of the weed next month. This will mostly be used in clinical trials, although some is expected to go to those with official medical approval. One of the advantages of this source is that users can be sure of what they are getting. The amount of tetrahydrocannabinol - the active ingredient in cannabis - in the government plants is only 5-6%, compared with 15-18% in street supplies.
UK scientists are currently running clinical trials using cannabis extracts, called cannabinoids, taken orally.
GW Pharmaceuticals, one of the British companies involved in UK trials, has been negotiating with the Canadian government. It is researching the use of a cannabis extract that is sprayed under the tongue. Mark Rogerson, the company's spokesman, said: "I fully understand why they are going for the compassionate joint, but we would see that as a short-term measure."
The main Medical Research Council-funded clinical trials in the UK are based in Plymouth, looking at the effects of cannabinoids on MS patients and those who need pain relief. In November 1998 a House of Lords select committee urged that cannabis should be legalised immediately for medical use, allowing doctors to prescribe it for patients. But since the trials began, there has been greater willingness to wait for a reliable and safe cannabis pill to be approved.
"We want to see results from proper trialling," said David Harrison, spokesman for the MS Society. "Although people try to play down some of the suggestions that have been made about the downside and possible carcinogenic effects, we don't think it is right that somebody with a lifelong condition has their problem exacerbated by something else."
But Rod Hermeston, from Disability Now magazine, said 70% of his readers found cannabis greatly relieved their pain or muscle spasms. "If you ask disabled people they don't say we want the outcome of a clinical trial. They just say leave us alone to get on with our lives and alleviate our pain."