Last updated on: 9/24/2019 | Author: ProCon.org

Aug. 26, 2003 – First Canadian Patient to Receive Government-Grown Marijuana

On Aug. 26, 2003, Canadian HIV-patient Jari Dvorak, age 62, becomes the first Canadian patient to receive government-grown marijuana. The program is in response to an Ontario court order for the Canadian government to make a legal supply of marijuana available to authorized patients.

He is “one of several hundred Canadians authorized to use medical marijuana for pain, nausea and other symptoms of catastrophic or chronic illness.” Qualified patients are approved through Health Canada, and the marijuana is distributed through the patients’ physicians.