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Editorial: Marijuana laws still need reform

The petition campaign aimed at decriminalizing marijuana in B.C. has fallen short of support needed to get the measure on a ballot, but the effort to reform Canada’s marijuana laws should continue.

The petition campaign aimed at decriminalizing marijuana in B.C. has fallen short of support needed to get the measure on a ballot, but the effort to reform Canada’s marijuana laws should continue. Regulations should be brought up to date, legally and medically.

A symptom of the strange evolution of medical-marijuana laws in Canada was the recent sight of a Mountie dressed in red serge and puffing on a joint, which was too much for the RCMP to take.

In 2001, fewer than 500 people were authorized to use marijuana for medical purposes; that figure has grown to more than 30,000.

One of them is New Brunswick RCMP Cpl. Ron Francis, who was prescribed three grams of marijuana a day to treat post-traumatic stress disorder he acquired during his years on the job. Health Canada says three grams means three to six joints. He wants to smoke it while he is on duty, but even though he is on administrative duties, the force is understandably unwilling to see him smoking a joint while wearing his RCMP uniform.

“Any member on a mind-altering drug — such as marijuana, OxyContin, Dilaudid — is not permitted to perform operational duties, including carrying a firearm or operating a police vehicle, as this could pose a risk to themselves, a co-worker or the public,” the RCMP said.

Francis had to turn in his red serge uniform. It’s hard to imagine how the force could do anything else. It has to enforce the federal government’s laws against drug possession at a time when a growing number of people are allowed by that same federal government to smoke to relieve pain or other symptoms of disease.

How and when patients should take their marijuana is supposed to be determined by doctors, but the Canadian Medical Association urges its members to stay away from prescribing marijuana because its risks and benefits have not been studied in the rigorous way that other prescription medications are examined. Doctors don’t know how much to prescribe or when to prescribe it.

Some reliable research, the association says, has been done on cannabinoids, which are pharmaceutically prepared medications that use THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. They are taken as pills or through vaporizers. The federal government has found them to be safe and effective.

But similar studies haven’t been done on the effectiveness or safety of smoked marijuana, which, like most smoke, contains potentially harmful substances. Health Canada says smoked marijuana delivers 20 to 70 per cent of the THC in the plant material. For doctors used to knowing down to the milligram how much active ingredient is in any pill they prescribe, that’s an unscientific answer.

“While it may be the case that medical marijuana is efficacious, scientific evidence comparable to other prescription pharmaceuticals is still lacking,” the association’s policy document says.

In June 2005, federal regulations changed so that doctors were no longer required to state the need for marijuana or to specify a dose. Instead, the emphasis is on making a diagnosis and attesting to the failure of conventional therapies. That eases some of the worries of the medical association because it reduces the legal and ethical problems, but the CMA still opposes the medical use of marijuana.

The association’s policy paper urges the federal government to do the scientific studies needed to evaluate marijuana so doctors have a solid foundation for making decisions.

While the government has an expert committee advising it on the scientific side, doctors still don’t have the rigorous information they need for making decisions.

Would Francis find relief from taking the pill form of marijuana, thus solving the bad optics of smoking in uniform? That is one of many questions that Health Canada should be able to answer.

Would the marijuana ballot initiative succeed with a second try? That would be up to the people of British Columbia.