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Canada Plans Medical Marijuana Project
Yahoo! News - AP | Sun Mar 21, 6:49 PM ET

TORONTO - Canada plans to make government-certified marijuana available in local pharmacies, a move that would make it only the second country in the world to allow the direct sale of medical marijuana.

Officials are organizing a pilot project in the British Columbia province modeled on a year-old program in the Netherlands.

Currently, there are 78 medical users in Canada permitted to buy government marijuana, which is grown in Flin Flon, Manitoba. An ounce sells for about $113, and the marijuana is sent by courier to patients or their doctors.

But the department is changing the regulations to allow participating pharmacies to stock marijuana for sale to approved patients without a doctor's prescription, similar to regulations governing so-called morning-after pills. Those emergency contraceptives can be obtained directly from a pharmacist without the need for a doctor's signature.

A notice of the change is expected to be made public this spring, allowing for drugstore distribution later in the year.

"We're just at the preliminary stages right now," said Robin O'Brien, a consulting pharmacist organizing the pilot project. "We're not quite sure how it's going to fit."

The Canadian government also has suggested it may decriminalize marijuana, a move criticized by U.S. drug and border agencies, which threaten more intrusive searches of cross-border travelers.

Some patients report that marijuana alleviates the pain and nausea associated with AIDS (news - web sites) and other diseases. But marijuana's status as a medicinal drug has not been formally approved, O'Brien said.

"There's no pharmaceutical company that's going to come forward to take it through the regulatory process because they can't get a patent on it, so it's kind of a limbo drug," he said.

The pilot project is slated for British Columbia because the province's college of pharmacists issued a groundbreaking statement last fall supporting the distribution of medical marijuana in pharmacies. Most health care organizations have opposed easier access.

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Torture Good, Healthcare Bad, Marijuana Evil.

There's no money for your issue so long as we're squandering $50 billion a year on the DrugWar. Ben Masel

PullMyBigToe

It seems everyone is telling the U.S.A. to go #*!# themselves these days. or is that Grorge Bush?

Johnyapplseed

That sounds like another great break through!....
However I was slightly disheartened by the last sentence.
I'm not sure what to make of it, I would liketo find out more info on that if anyone knows?

JohnyA

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Higher Self

Most health care organizations have opposed easier access.


Of course they are! It's not about people benefiting from a plant that can occur naturally, it's about profit, controlling the masses and how can they market it.

Fret not JohnyA, one step at a time. Contridiction is bound to appear while people adjust to 'new' beliefs, but there definitely appears to a changing of beliefs, a shift in consensus realities.

Tis an exciting time to be on the planet indeed.

Bellatrix

You're right on there HigherSelf, but there are two other factors - the extremely poor quality of weed from Flin Flon AND the fact that marijuana is still, for all intents and purposes, illegal in Canada, and therefore its value is hrossly inflated. If I ran a pharmacy I would be afriad of getting robbed. Organized crime is also against any kind of loosening of marijuana laws because it cuts into their profits.

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