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Canada: Government Admits: Our Marijuana Is Bad Weed
Mark Kennedy Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Wednesday 08 May 2002 Canada's first crop of officially sanctioned medicinal marijuana contains a rainbow of potencies and purities Ooops! The official supply of federal marijuana is bad weed. So impure, in fact, that the first crop contains 185 different varieties of marijuana. Hardly the stuff a health minister would want to provide to a seriously ill patient to relieve their symptoms. Health Minister Anne McLellan revealed the "problem" yesterday, saying it's responsible for the delay -- which could last at least several more months -- in getting the department's much-heralded plan off the ground to provide marijuana to Canadians who need it for medicinal purposes. She said the unreliable marijuana stems from the seeds that were used. Initially, the federal government had hoped to obtain a standardized seed from the U.S. government, but the American Drug Enforcement Agency refused to share the stuff. That meant our officially sanctioned grower was left using seeds obtained by police, who confiscated them during their law enforcement work. Not surprisingly, then, the first crop from an underground mine in Flin Flon, Man., of nearly 2,000 plants -- which was completed in the fall and was supposed to be distributed early this year -- contained a rainbow of varying potencies and purities. The government is now having its marijuana tested to find the best strain so that a "quality, standardized" seed can be used for the second crop of plants, said Ms. McLellan. Until then, sick Canadians who were approved to smoke the stuff and were counting on the official federal marijuana as their supply will have to wait. "It is a problem," Ms. McLellan told reporters about the delay. "I'm not here to pretend." But she said the government has an obligation to ensure that the marijuana it provides people is of a consistent quality -- in part because the marijuana would be given out as part of clinical trials to determine whether the claims are true about the medicinal benefits. Without a standardized crop, she said, researchers monitoring the sick patients would have no way of knowing whether the marijuana is having the desired effects. She urged people to remember that Canada is the first country in the world to launch a program, based on compassionate grounds, to test the merits of medicinal marijuana. "So in fact, trial and error is going to be a part of this. I think people have to be patient." Nonetheless, the delay is an embarrassment for Health Canada. Its former minister, Allan Rock, pushed the the department to adopt a more compassionate approach to medical marijuana. New regulations came into effect last summer that allow certain patients with chronic or terminal illnesses to apply to Health Canada for permission to use marijuana. The regulations apply to patients who have less than a year to live; those suffering from AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, severe arthritis or epilepsy; and to patients suffering from other conditions, if marijuana is recommended by two specialists. In each case, the application must be signed by a doctor, who must, among other things, agree that the "benefits from the applicant's recommended use of marijuana outweigh any risks associated with that use." Those who qualify can grow marijuana on their own, have another approved grower do it for them, or get the marijuana from the government. As of April 5, the government had given permission to 205 sick Canadians to smoke marijuana. Of those, 137 have permission to grow their own marijuana. As well, 10 permits have been granted to people to grow the marijuana on behalf of sick people who can't do it themselves. Canadian Alliance MP Rob Merrifield questioned Ms. McLellan about the apparent inconsistency in her approach. He noted that the government is letting 137 people grow their own marijuana, with no indication of the quality of their "backyard" crops. And yet it is demanding a higher standard for those who will rely on the government crop. The government gave a $5.7-million contract to Prairie Plant Systems to grow the marijuana in Flin Flon. Last August, Mr. Rock announced that the first crop was being grown. In December, his department said the crop was ready to be shipped throughout the country, and the only issues that needed to be addressed were how the marijuana would be distributed to patients. But by last month, there were news reports about the delay and suggestions the department would never make the marijuana available. Appearing before the Commons health committee yesterday, Ms. McLellan said she wanted to clear up the confusion. "This government's policy has not changed," she said. "The timelines have changed." Ms. McLellan denied to reporters that the first batch of pot is a "wasted crop" because it "provides us with the opportunity to do quality testing to reach our own level, if you like, of satisfaction as it relates to a standardized product." When asked why the department didn't just halt the project last summer when it learned it couldn't get the seeds it wanted from the U.S. National Institute of Drug Abuse, (which was conducting clinical tests and had the only legal supply of pot), Ms. McLellan was circumspect. "I was not there, but I think there was a desire to move forward with the initiative."
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