Potential medical pot fraud raised fears at Health Canada

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Health Canada was forced to create a safety net to prevent abuse after a handful of forged authorizations for medicinal marijuana surfaced, according to emails obtained by CBC News.

Emails released through federal Access to Information laws show that Health Canada was made aware of at least five instances last year where doctors’ signatures were forged on applications for medical marijuana.

In a related problem, specialists were also concerned general practitioners were falsely using their names to approve licences for patients.

In 2012, one specialist physician in British Columbia flagged to Health Canada that another doctor was using his name without his permission to authorize applications under a Category 2 classification.

Category 2 licences are given to patients with debilitating medical conditions and require the authorization of a medical specialist, according to Health Canada.

The doctor told Health Canada officials he had personally received copies of 15 authorizations for patients he did not...

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URL: 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/potential-medical-pot-fraud-raised-fears-at-health-canada-1.2648641