Medical marijuana users more than $500,000 in arrears with Health Canada

From the Canadian Press:
Medical marijuana users are on the hook for more than $500,000 in unpaid bills for government-certified weed, raising questions about the effectiveness of Health Canada's troubled dope program.

Newly disclosed statistics show that Health Canada has sent final notices - and sometimes dispatched a collection agency as well - to 462 registered users since government marijuana first became available in 2003.

"Most of the 462 individuals who have received a letter regarding their accounts in arrears have had their shipment ceased," department spokesman Paul Duchesne said in an e-mail.

The unpaid bills, totalling $554,255 as of Dec. 31, have tripled in value in the last two years and have resulted in some seriously ill citizens returning to the black market for their medication. The marijuana distribution service was specifically designed to give patients a legal alternative to street dope. ...more

Health Canada looking for firm to grow its medical marijuana

From the Canadian Press:
Health Canada is looking for someone to grow its weed.

The department served notice Monday it will soon invite firms to bid on a contract to cultivate and distribute medical marijuana, which is now being done in Flin Flon, Man., by Prairie Plant Systems Inc.

The winning firm will be expected to deliver a steady stream of government-approved dope to certified medical, users starting in the fall.

Health Canada posted a notice on a government tenders website saying it would put out a formal request for proposals in the spring of 2008, without specifying a date. ...more

Pot may impair mental function in MS patients

From CTV News:
Patients with multiple sclerosis who choose to smoke marijuana to help relieve some of their symptoms may be harming their cognitive abilities, finds new Canadian research.

The researchers, with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, say they found that MS patients who regularly smoked pot appeared to have more difficulties with processing information and short-term verbal memory.

Study author Dr. Anthony Feinstein says MS patients should be aware of the risks of pot, because many are already dealing with cognitive problems.

"The significance of this finding is particularly important because MS is itself a cause of neuropsychological impairment in 40 to 65 per cent of patients, and therefore this research suggests that smoking marijuana may only be worsening the problem," Feinstein said in a statement. ...more

Marijuana dazes docs

In my practice, I have been asked questions by physicians who were trying to fill out medicinal marijuana government application forms for their patients. The common thread seemed to be that the physicians were willing to try to help the patient, but didn't really know much about creating a treatment plan, just like this article states.

From the Ottawa Sun:
Physicians who approve the use of medicinal marijuana say their clinical knowledge of the drug is hazy and they rely heavily on their patients to help them craft treatment plans, according to in-depth interviews with doctors conducted for Health Canada.

The doctors' knowledge of medical marijuana "had most often come directly (in anecdotal form) from their patients' experience with the drug," concludes the study of physician attitudes done by Montreal firm Les Etudes de Marche Createc.

"This model obscures the boundary between physician and patient and contravenes conventional medical practice which relies almost exclusively on scientific evidence-based information.

"Many physicians expressed concern about this 'blurring' of boundary between patient and doctor." ...more

Health Canada: Keep medical pot consumption low

From CTV News:
Health Canada has been contacting doctors who prescribe medical marijuana for their government-approved patients, advising them to keep the dosages low.

Some users say that not only violates doctor-patient confidentiality, it's also wrong for bureaucrats to make judgments about the medical needs of people they've never seen.

"A person's medication should be between him and his doctor,'' said Tony Adams, 60, a medical marijuana user in Victoria.

"There shouldn't be some bureaucrat in Ottawa that's never met me. Everybody has different needs for medications.''

Adams, a licenced user who's been smoking seven grams of marijuana daily, recently applied to Health Canada to increase the dose to 10 grams, with his doctor's authorization. Official approval from Ottawa is needed so that Adam can legally grow the appropriate number of marijuana plants, set by Health Canada at five plants for each daily gram.

But a program official in Ottawa challenged Adams' doctor in a telephone call, saying most patients need no more than five grams. Adams, who has severe arthritis and degenerative disc disease, later received a new licence for just five grams a day. ...more

Health Canada charging huge markup on pot

From the Toronto Star:
The federal government charges patients 15 times more for certified medical marijuana than it pays to buy the weed in bulk from its official supplier, newly released documents show.

Critics say it's unconscionable to charge that high a markup to some of the country's sickest citizens, who have little income and are often cut off from their medical marijuana supply when they can't pay their government dope bills.

Records obtained under the Access to Information Act show that Health Canada pays $328.75 for each kilogram of bulk medical marijuana produced by Prairie Plant Systems Inc. ...more