Medicinal marijuana should be legal, MP says
By Rick Ouston, The Vancouver Sun

It's time for Canada to look at legalizing marijuana for medical purposes,
says a Liberal MP.

"We have skirted the issue," said Hedy Fry, who sits in the federal cabinet
as minister of state for multiculturalism and the status of women. "It's time
for the debate."

Ms. Fry spoke in Ottawa yesterday in light of revelations last week that a
Vancouver group called the Compassion Club was distributing marijuana
for free or at reduced rates to people using the drug to fight the sideeffects
of diseases like cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis. Ms. Fry is a medical
doctor who practised medicine in Vancouver before being elected as
Liberal MP for Vancouver Centre.

"I think it has been shown that there has been some really good clinical
outcomes of using marijuana for terminal diseases," she said.

THC one of the psychoactive components of marijuana has already
been proven to fight nausea for some people undergoing chemotherapy and
is available by prescription. But some patients report that drug doesn't help
them, while other psychoactive substances in marijuana, smoked or eaten,
do help alleviate their symptoms. Ms. Fry said the substance should be
made available for people undergoing palliative care.

"If we know that it works in any form, then what we should be talking about
is its use in other forms, such as smoking it. I think we should be moving
toward looking at that É for people with terminal diseases," she said.

Health Minister Allan Rock could not be reached for comment, nor could
Justice Minister Anne McLellan, whose ministry is in charge of prosecuting
drug offences.

Svend Robinson, the New Democratic MP for Burnaby, B.C., said in an
interview that he would raise the issue himself, possibly in the form of a
private member's bill.