Canadian House Of Commons
Votes 204 to 29 To Urge The Health Ministry
To "Take Steps" Toward Legalizing Marijuana For Medical Use.
Bloc Quebecois Seeks to Keep Pressure On Health Minister.
(Marijuananews note: Although this is a watered
down version, it does keep the pressure on the Health Minister. However, it is hard to
understand why any pressure is necessary. Medical marijuana has overwhelming public
support in Canada and the issue is not going to go away if they try to stall. On the other
hand, note the little dip into prohibitionist propaganda at the end of the article.)
See
Canada Health Minister
Won’t Challenge Medical Marijuana Ruling:
"We’re going to start making marijuana available to people for medical purposes
by the end of June"
and
Canadian Patients Can
Apply For Medical Use Of Marijuana, But There's Still No Legal Source.
-- "It’s unfair. It’s just patently unfair," Says Superior Court
Justice.
"I’m sick. I’m scared. I need help not harassment." Says AIDS Patient
and for background on DEAland pressure Canadian policies, see
The 12th Annual Drug
Policy Foundation Conference
– A Headless Movement or Horizontal Organization? Analysis By Richard Cowan
May 26, 1999
From The Montreal Gazette
letters@thegazette.southam.ca
http://www.montrealgazette.com/
http://forums.canada.com/~montreal
By David Gamble
MPS BACK MOVE TOWARD LEGALIZED MEDICINAL POT
The House of Commons voted last night to urge the federal
government to "take steps" toward legalizing marijuana for medical use.
Governing Liberals united with opposition MPs to approve, by a 204-29 vote, a diluted
version of a Bloc Quebecois motion calling for legalization of the street drug so those
ill with cancer, AIDS and epilepsy can ease their suffering without fear of prosecution.
See
Transcript Of Recent
Medical Marijuana Debate In Canadian Parliament
Shows Real Concern About The Issues, In Contrast To The DEAland Congressional Record.
But Doctor Spouts Party Line.
The reworded motion reflects Health Minister Allan Rock’s commitment in March to
begin clinical trials of medical marijuana, but like Rock it makes
no commitment as to whether the drug will be made available to patients as treatment
rather than research.
Rock has promised to unveil his "research plan" next month. His spokesman,
Derek Kent, played down the importance of last night’s vote: "That timetable
remains the same."
But Bloc MP Bernard Bigras defended the Commons’ vote as necessary, arguing that
little has happened since Rock’s initial announcement and the sick who use marijuana
are still being harassed by police.
Bigras urged Rock to use his power to exempt individuals from
Criminal Code prosecution on compassionate grounds, noting that the Commons has now joined
the Ontario Superior Court, which this month gave Toronto AIDS activist Jim Wakeford the
legal right to grow and use marijuana. Rock has said the federal government won’t
appeal that court ruling.
After the vote, Bigras said the Bloc "will now ensure that the government keeps
its word on this question."
"We still don’t have the research protocol," he said. The Bloc voted
against the Liberal amendments, but turned around and supported the watered-down version,
arguing that it still sends a message to the government.
"I’m sure I’ll have ill people coming to see me in the coming days,
saying that these clinical trials won’t give them access to marijuana for three
years, so what we’re saying is we favour clinical tests but we need immediate access
to marijuana," Bigras said.
Wakeford won the right to grow and smoke marijuana for his own use under a
constitutional exemption from prosecution granted by an Ontario Superior Court judge, who
criticized Ottawa for foot-dragging in handling exemption applications from dying
patients.
He is only the second Canadian to use the drug with legal immunity. Terry Parker of
Toronto, who has epilepsy, won the right in November 1997, but the Crown has appealed that
ruling.
See
Canadian Justice Runs
Out of Patience With Government
Before Patient Runs Out Of Time;
Exempts Wakeford From Marijuana Laws. Implications for Others
In the United States, some states allow pot use by the terminally
ill, despite some warnings from experts that it may not be the wonder drug advocates say
it is. The medical establishment has noted that, as a painkiller, marijuana is not that
potent and it has side-effects like confusion and sedation.
(Marijuananews note: Well, he made it all the way to the end and then tripped over the
party line. It is hard to know how to respond to the above display of ignorance. The
states that allow medical use of marijuana do not restrict it to the terminally ill. Pain
relief is by no means the only medical use of marijuana, and most pain-relievers and other
drugs cause far more "confusion and sedation" than marijuana, which is one
reason that so many patients want to use it.
It is typical that a reporter that obviously knows little about the subject would be
assigned to write the article and end with a bit of prohibitionist propaganda. Sedation
and confusion, indeed.)
Copyright: 1999 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
See
Secret Canadian
Health Ministry Memo Shows Influence of Prohibitionist Ideologues:
"The use of marijuana for medicinal purposes could
send the wrong message to Canadian teenagers"
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