TORONTO – Jari Dvorak scored two ounces of pot Tuesday and lit up, but – unlike in the past – the deal involved no back alley exchange or hiding from police.

This time, the 62-year-old Dvorak went to a doctor to pick up his supply, making him one of the first patients to receive government-grown marijuana. He paid $245, tax included.

“I just smoked some and it’s doing the trick,” said the HIV-positive Dvorak, one of several hundred Canadians authorized to use medical marijuana for pain, nausea and other symptoms of catastrophic or chronic illness.

The program announced last month by the federal health department provides marijuana grown by the government in a former copper mine turned underground greenhouse in northern Manitoba.

Getting it has been a three-year struggle for Dvorak and other Canadian patients who have battled through the courts to make the government respond to what they call their need for a compassionate exemption from criminal law.