Canada plans to make government-certified marijuana available in local pharmacies, a move that would make Canada the second country in the world after the Netherlands to allow the direct sale of medical marijuana.
Officials are organising a pilot project in British Columbia, 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. A 30-gram (about an ounce) bag of dried buds, sells for $US113 ($A150) each, and are sent by courier directly to patients or to 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, emergency contraceptives that 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 who is organising the pilot project for the government. "We're not quite sure how it's going to fit."
The Canadian government has also suggested it may decriminalise pot, a move criticised by US drug and border agencies which threatened more intrusive searches of cross-border travelers. The latest move is unlikely to be welcomed either.
Some patients report that marijuana alleviates the pain and nausea associated with AIDS and other diseases. But marijuana's status as a medicinal drug is in limbo, said O'Brien, because it is not formally approved.
"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."
The pilot project is slated for British Columbia because the province's college of pharmacists issued a groundbreaking statement last autumn supporting the distribution of medical marijuana in pharmacies, unlike most health care organisations which have opposed easier access.
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Canada plans to make government-certified marijuana available in local pharmacies, a move that would make Canada the second country in the world after the Netherlands to allow the direct sale of medical marijuana.
Officials are organising a pilot project in British Columbia, 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. A 30-gram (about an ounce) bag of dried buds, sells for $US113 ($A150) each, and are sent by courier directly to patients or to 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, emergency contraceptives that 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 who is organising the pilot project for the government. "We're not quite sure how it's going to fit."
The Canadian government has also suggested it may decriminalise pot, a move criticised by US drug and border agencies which threatened more intrusive searches of cross-border travelers. The latest move is unlikely to be welcomed either.
Some patients report that marijuana alleviates the pain and nausea associated with AIDS and other diseases. But marijuana's status as a medicinal drug is in limbo, said O'Brien, because it is not formally approved.
"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."
The pilot project is slated for British Columbia because the province's college of pharmacists issued a groundbreaking statement last autumn supporting the distribution of medical marijuana in pharmacies, unlike most health care organisations which have opposed easier access.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/...9823285039.html
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