Jul. 27, 2001. 04:41 PM
OTTAWA (CP) - Doctors are concerned
about a flood of applications from patients - some using fake forms - when
regulations on marijuana for medicinal use take effect Monday.
Under the new law, severely ill patients
with a doctor's approval can apply to Health Canada to grow and use the
drug.
The Alberta Medical Association told
doctors in that province Friday to ''think twice'' about filling out forms
for patients.
Dr. Clayne Steed, AMA president,
also warned physicians to be extra wary of fake forms after one physician
was asked to fill out a form from the Grant W. Krieger Cannabis Research
Foundation.
Calgary-based Krieger, 46, who has
multiple sclerosis, has been fighting for more than five years to have
the drug legalized for medicinal use.
In April, the federal government
announced that people suffering from severe forms of arthritis will be
given the right to possess and smoke marijuana legally if they can prove
they can't be treated with other drugs to alleviate relentless pain.
The regulations also allow terminally
ill people as well as those with AIDS, multiple sclerosis, spinal-cord
injuries, epilepsy and other serious conditions to use the drug if it eases
their symptoms.
The measures also allow the government
to license third parties to grow marijuana for individuals who can't grow
it for themselves.
To date, 292 people have been granted
exemptions from current law, which makes it a criminal offence to grow
and use marijuana.
The Canadian Medical Association
has raised strong objections to the new regulations, which they say ignore
normal protocols of rigorous pre-market testing, putting patients and physicians
in a precarious position.
The Canadian Society of Addiction
Medicine, representing doctors specializing in addiction treatment, argues
''there is more risk than benefit'' and is calling for more clinical research.
''Unfortunately the government has
decided to go ahead to appease a few lobby groups,'' said Dr. Raju Hajela,
past-president.
Canada is the first country to adopt
such a system using marijuana as medicine, after an Ontario judge ordered
the government to clarify its rules within one year. The regulations are
a result of that order.
''The courts can't be deciding how
doctors should be practising medicine, because that's what is essentially
happening here,'' said Hajela, an assistant professor at Queens University
in Kingston.
Health Canada says it shares doctors'
concerns and plans to release a manual for physicians to coincide with
the regulations taking effect.
''We will continue to monitor the
implementation of this legislation,'' said Roslyn Tremblay, a spokeswoman
for Health Canada.
Clinical trials are also under way
in Toronto and Montreal, she said.
The new rules create three categories
of people who can possess the drug: the terminally ill with a prognosis
of death within one year; those with symptoms associated with specific
serious medical conditions; and those with other medical conditions who
have statements from two doctors saying conventional treatments have not
worked.
Tim McClermont, executive director
of the Hepatitis C Society of Canada, said the process frustrates patients
who find the system too bureaucratic.
Health Canada requires so many different
types of documentation, patients have to keep going back to their physician,
McClermont said.
''The doctors are getting angry and
getting fed up with it . . . so often they tell the patient, `I don't want
be involved with this, it's too much of a hassle','' he said.
''It's discouraging for everybody.
. . . people will just give up and not pursue it.''