OTTAWA — Canadians with severe arthritis and some other serious illnesses should be allowed to legally smoke marijuana to ease their suffering, Health Minister Allan Rock said Friday.
Rock proposed legislation that would expand laws on the use of “medicinal marijuana,” which currently allow cancer sufferers to take the drug.
“Canada is acting compassionately by allowing people who are suffering from grave and debilitating illnesses to have access to marijuana for medical purposes,” Rock said.
He called for the legislation to be approved by July 31.
In addition to severe arthritis sufferers, the proposed regulations would allow terminally ill patients and people with AIDS, multiple sclerosis, spinal injuries, epilepsy and other serious conditions to use marijuana.
The government would license third parties to grow marijuana for individual sufferers unable to grow it for themselves, said a government statement.
The regulations were worked out after a court ruling last year that gave the federal government a July 31 deadline to change criminal laws so that people requiring marijuana for medicinal purposes could legally obtain and possess it.
In December, the government awarded Prairie Plant Systems Inc. of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, a contract to grow marijuana for the government for research purposes. The first crop was expected to be available later this year.
Canada’s Supreme Court also has agreed to consider a case that argues criminalizing marijuana is unconstitutional because the drug poses no significant health threat.
