AIDS PATIENT FAILS IN APPEAL TO HEALTH CANADA TO USE MARIJUANA

OTTAWA (CP) A gaunt Jean Charles Pariseau, leaning on his cane, made his
way to Parliament Hill on Thursday to explain how marijuana has become a
last resort in his battle against AIDS.

"It's not for the pleasure, it's not to get stoned, it's only medication,"
said Pariseau, 30, explaining how smoking pot each morning allows him to
stomach his food and all the pills he must take to stay alive.

But an appeal to Health Canada to allow the dying Ottawa man to legally use
pot to enhance his appetite and fight nausea hit an immediate roadblock,
with the request being denied at least for now.

A team of doctors and lawyers applied to Health Canada on Wednesday through
a special emergency drug act to allow Dan Kilby, Pariseau's doctor, to
prescribe marijuana for medical purposes, just as he had been doing before
he was arrested last month.

But Health Canada turned down the application, saying the applicant didn't
meet all the requirements.

"He's not going to be able to access the product through this program,"
said Dann Michols, director general of Health Canada's therapeutic products
division.

Tens of thousands of requests are made each year under the special program,
which allows doctors to request approval of drugs not approved under the
Food and Drug Act if a patient is in an emergency situation and authorized
remedies have failed.

The rate of approval is extremely high, said Michols.

For instance, the antiAIDS drug AZT was given a special exemption under
the program before it was ever officially approved for use in Canada, as
was morphine. Some drugs never intended for approval in Canada, such as
medicine for tropical diseases, have also been endorsed.

Kilby said he will continue the fight, because it's a matter of life and
death for Pariseau, whose weight has dropped below 100 pounds.

"I have no doubt in my mind that using marijuana contributed to his
health," said Kilby. "He went from a man who was dying to a man who has a
life expectancy of several years."

What the team needed for the application to Health Canada for an exemption
for Pariseau was a willing manufacturer to grow the marijuana.

That's Aubert Martin, an Ottawa man who has been busted for growing pot
over the years.

"I'm just doing this to help a friend," he said Thursday at a news
conference organized by the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, which
supports Pariseau's case.

But Health Canada said Kilby and Martin didn't show they meet the special
licensing requirements governing controlled drugs that would do such things
as guarantee pot wouldn't be used for illegal purposes.

The government said it would be willing to look at the application again,
if they obtain licences, which could take months. A manufacturers' licence
could be especially difficult to get.

The use of marijuana for medicinal purposes has become a hot political
issue in recent weeks.

Most recently, the federal government appealed the ruling of an Ontario
judge last week that allowed a Toronto man to keep smoking marijuana to
control his epilepsy.

But Michols said the political concerns of exempting an illegal substance
played no part in Health Canada's decision.

The lawyers and doctors took on Pariseau's cause as a first step in
ultimately getting pot approved. Such a process could take years.

"This is a request for a single patient, we are not asking for a broad
policy change," said Michele BrillEdwards, a doctor and drug regulation
expert.

"We're not talking about marijuana being on the pharmacy shelves in the
near future."