Canada has become the first country to legalise cannabis for medical purposes, over-riding protests from doctors who said the decision could put them in an awkward situation.
Until now, anyone in Canada wanting to smoke pot to alleviate pain had to apply to Health Minister Allan Rock for special permission. Some 300 have already done so.
But from Monday, local time, anyone with a terminal illness expected to live less than a year will be allowed access to marijuana on the production of a doctor's certificate.
Others able to benefit will include those suffering serious pain from conditions like multiple sclerosis, cancer, AIDS and epilepsy as well as severe forms of arthritis and spinal cord problems.
"This compassionate measure will improve the quality of life of sick Canadians, particularly those who are terminally ill," Rock said in a statement.
Groups working with the terminally and seriously ill warmly welcomed the change in rules.
"I am very glad to be living in a country that is being so progressive... (this) really makes us a country to be proud of and I hope it stays that way," said Derek Thaczuk from the Toronto-based People With AIDS Foundation.
Neuropharmacology professor Roger Pertwee, a leading expert on cannabis from Scotland's Aberdeen University, said that Canada should be praised for its courage. "It will certainly make other countries take it seriously," he said.
The Canadian move contrasts sharply with the situation in the United States, where the Supreme Court ruled in May that cannabis clubs could not legally distribute marijuana as a "medical necessity" for seriously ill patients.
The US Justice Department questions marijuana's medical usefulness and says it must remain banned.
Marijuana is prohibited in Canada as well and sufferers will need a permit to grow their own supply. But they can designate someone to grow it for them or - at some stage in the future - buy it from the government.
Last December, Ottawa awarded a $9.2 million contract to a company to grow federally approved marijuana in a former mine near a remote Manitoban town. The first pot for sale should be ready next year.
Patients permitted to smoke marijuana for medical purposes will be allowed a 30-day supply at any given time.
Canada's doctors are unenthusiastic about the idea, saying it will force them to decide whether patients should be allowed access to a substance that has no proven medicinal value.
"We are still disappointed the fundamental medical issues of quality, efficacy and patient safety have been ignored," the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) said in a statement.
"These regulations are placing Canadian physicians and their patients in the precarious position of attempting to access a product that has not gone through the normal protocols of rigorous pre-market testing."
The CMA said it feared patients might try to ask for marijuana to combat the symptoms of any condition, or pressure their doctors to be given marijuana for recreational purposes.
Rock dismisses talk that the new regulations will lead to the decriminalisation of marijuana, but there are signs the government is under some pressure.
Justice Minister Anne McLellan says she is open to debate on the issue while former prime minister Joe Clark, who leads the minority Conservative party, said in May he supported moves toward decriminalization of the drug.
Cannabis is widely used recreationally in Canada and Robin Ellins, owner of a cannabis shop in Toronto, called on the government to rethink its approach to what he said was a nontoxic and nonaddictive substance.
"I don't think there should be any issue whatsoever around this plant any more. We should be decriminalising outright it for all Canadians who want access to this," he said.
© Reuters
