August 10, 1998

ALLAN ROCK’S DUBIOUS RESPONSE

Last week, an Ontario judge questioned why Health Minister Allan Rock, in a 1997 letter, not only refused a dying man medicinal access to marijuana, but also failed to tell the patient how he could properly apply for the drug under existing federal rules.

Justice Harry LaForme of the Ontario Court’s General Division is considering the case of Jim Wakeford, an AIDS patient who wants to smoke marijuana to cope with the nausea and physical wasting that accompany the disease. Wakeford wants the court to order the federal government to supply him with the drug.

In 1997, Wakeford wrote to Rock asking the minister to allow him "compassionate access to marijuana."

Rock replied that marijuana was not approved for medical use in Canada and suggested Wakeford try taking pills called Marinol, a legal substitute to cannabis that Wakeford had already tried but which only aggravated his illness. Rock made no mention of a special exemption for marijuana use under a section of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

LaForme suggested Rock may have ducked his responsibility by not informing the man how to get marijuana through proper bureaucratic channels, without breaking the law.

Government lawyers arguing the case said the minister does not have to provide such information.

As the minister of health, it would seem that Rock does have a basic responsibility to provide information necessary to enhance a person’s health.

After all, the exemption was put in place just for such an eventuality— whether the government of the day agrees with the concept or not and regardless of the fact that marijuana is illegal.