the book Zoyd could have written

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Health Canada set to release users' manual for medical
marijuana
 
DEAN BEEBY	
Canadian Press

Sunday, July 20, 2003

(CP) - Health Canada is set to release a user's manual
this week for a drug it has long opposed: marijuana. 

The unprecedented move has been triggered by the
courts, which compelled Health Canada this month to
begin distributing government-certified marijuana to a
group of patients who take the substance to alleviate
symptoms. The department must also release a manual on
how to use its dope - but a draft version of the
document shows patients will get little practical
advice about ingesting marijuana and lots of warnings
against using it at all. 

[...] Users who do choose to smoke are warned that
"smoking should be gentle and should cease if the
patient begins to feel disoriented or agitated ...
naive smokers should take great care and be
supervised." 

The document, headlined Information for Health Care
Professionals, warns of potential panic attacks,
psychosis and convulsions in some cases. 

"If disturbing psychiatric symptoms occur at the
prescribed dosage, the patient should be closely
observed in a quiet environment and supportive
measures, including reassurance, should be used." 

Users are also advised that traces of marijuana remain
in the urine for weeks and may turn up in drug tests
carried out by employers or police. 

Apart from brief sections citing scientific studies on
taking marijuana orally - baked in a chocolate cookie,
for example - or rectally as a suppository, the manual
offers no techniques to avoid smoking. 

Experienced, health-conscious users have long turned
to tinctures and vaporizers as alternatives to smoking
dope, which delivers the main active ingredient, THC,
quickly but can harm the lungs. 

A doctor based in Berkeley, Calif., who uses marijuana
or cannabis to treat patients, posted his own user's
manual on the Internet last Friday, providing detailed
advice on non-smoked forms of ingestion. 

"For both efficiency and health reasons, I recommend
to all my patients that they set a goal of taking all
(or almost all) of their cannabis medicines in
non-smoked forms, mostly using edibles and drinkables,
'topping off' as necessary with vaporization," Dr.
David Hadorn wrote on his Web site
(www.davidhadorn.com/cannabis/CM-guideline.htm). 

Eric Nash, a Health Canada-approved grower of medical
marijuana, provided his only customer with a
vaporizer, which heats the substance to release THC
for inhaling without any burning. 

"Vaporizers are very popular with medical users," he
said from his Duncan, B.C., home. Nash is one of 32
growers in Canada each licensed to provide one
approved medical user with marijuana. 

Tinctures can be produced by soaking marijuana leaves
and buds in alcohol, which extracts the active
ingredient. Drops of the tincture can then be used in
cooking or under the tongue. 

Health Canada does not approve the use of marijuana,
saying clinical studies are needed first to
demonstrate whether it is effective as a medicine.
However, court decisions have forced it to allow
select patients to use marijuana on a compassionate
basis. 

Desjardins said the dried marijuana that Health Canada
will distribute through doctors to some of the 582
approved medical users will have a standard dose of 10
per cent THC. 

The cost will be $5 a gram, much less than on the
street. The material, grown under contract by Prairie
Plant Systems in Flin Flon, Man., and available in
30-gram bags, was originally intended only for
clinical trials. 

Direct distribution to patients, however, could be cut
off within weeks as the federal government mounts a
court challenge of the order requiring it to be a
supplier. 

The Health Canada user's manual, which will be sent to
doctors and posted on the Internet this week, will be
accompanied by a two-page information sheet for
patients written in layman's language, Desjardins
said. 

None of the Prairie Plant Systems marijuana can be
distributed until the document is made available, she
said. 

© Copyright  2003 The Canadian Press


<http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=E0C674DE-572B-47A3-9A70-D482806C4082>

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