Posted May 8, 2002
(MarijuanaNews note: This is another example of the
nonsense of cannabis prohibition that would be hilarious, if real people weren’t
being hurt.

The good news is that the Canadian politicians find it useful to blame the
DEA. That is a good sign for us.

The bad news is not just that Canada’s medical cannabis program is being
delayed and the patients are being deprived of medicine, but also that the
general ignorance seems to be the order of the day. If you know anything about
cannabis, please go away!

My good friend Hilary Black of the BC Compassion Society has been saying all
along that Health Canada was using stolen seeds about which they knew nothing,
so this is hardly a surprise.
See
BC Medical Cannabis
Greenhouse Busted while Compassion Clubs Consult with Canadian Health Minister
Allan Rock

It has been obvious that the program proposed by Health Canada was completely
unworkable because it required the doctors to recommend specific dosages, which
is both pointless and impossible, because the doctors could not know the potency
of the cannabis, or the individual patient’s needs.

This left the door open for organized quackery to block the program on both
that reasonable basis – they could not do what was required — and then to add
that they want cannabis to be tested the same way very expensive and yet
dangerous pharmaceuticals are tested.

Alan Rock, the then Health Minister devised this program to give the
appearance of complying with a Canadian court order and to appear to be doing
something that the Canadian people overwhelmingly support.
See
Health Canada Press Release Makes
Clear that the Health of Canadians Is Less Important than Marijuana Prohibition.
Victimization of a Patient Gives More Proof.

Just over a year ago I wrote, “The cartoonist Rube Goldberg’s
name is in the dictionary meaning “accomplishing by complex means what seemingly
could be done simply.” I doubt seriously that it is really Alan Rock’s ambition
to be similarly remembered, but without the intended humor. However, that is
precisely the risk he is running here. This is pointlessly complex, and in the
context of the reality of modern medicine, both medically and scientifically
absurd.”
See
We Are Winning!
Canadian Medical Marijuana Program: Politically Very Important, Medically and
Scientifically Absurd.

From The Saskatoon StarPhoenix
spnews@thesp.com

http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/
By Mark Kennedy of Saskatoon StarPhoenix
May 8, 2002
(MarijuanaNews note: This is a big story in most of the
Canadian papers today. The Saskatoon StarPhoenix has had some excellent
editorials on cannabis prohibition.
See

Saskatchewan Paper Says It’s “Time To Scrap Stupid Pot Law”
“Absurd laws require absurd measures to enforce them.”
and
Great Canadian Editorial Calls for
Legalization; Decries Justice Minister’s Giving Narks Veto Over Changing
Marijuana Laws.

Notice that the Justice Minister in the above story is Anne McLellen, now the
Health Minister, who moved to kill the medical cannabis program as soon as she
got that portfolio – well before she hit on the politically brilliant idea of
blaming the DEA. While this story is okay, it is obvious that the reporter knows
so little about cannabis that he might qualify to work for Health Canada.)

Oops! The official supply of federal pot is bad weed. So impure, in fact,
that the first crop contains 185 different varieties of pot. 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” Tuesday, saying it is
responsible for the delay — which could last at least several more months –
for 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 pot stems from the seeds that were used. Initially,
the federal government had hoped to obtain a standardized seed from the U.S.
government, but officials in the American Drug Enforcement Agency refused to
share the stuff.

That meant Prairie Plant Systems of Saskatoon, the officially sanctioned
grower who harvested the pot at an underground mine in Flin Flon, Man., was left
using seeds obtained by police, who confiscated it during their law enforcement
work.
(MarijuanaNews note: Stolen seeds.)

Not surprisingly, then, the first crop 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.
(MarijuanaNews note: The part about “purities” is
nonsense. Most strains are hybrids. There is nothing wrong with that. The
problem is that they don’t know what is what.)

The government is now having its pot tested to find the best strain so that a
“quality, standardized” seed can be used for the second crop of plants, said
McLellan.

Until then, sick Canadians who were approved to smoke the stuff and were
counting on the official federal pot as their supply will have to wait.

“It is a problem,” McLellan told reporters about the delay. “I’m not here to
pretend.”

But McLellan said the government has an obligation to ensure that the
marijuana it provides people is of a consistent quality — in part because the
pot 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.

(MarijuanaNews note: What nonsense! The patients will know whether or not
they are nauseous, in pain, having spasms, etc.

While it is certainly important for some patients to have the right strains,
for many patients almost any good cannabis will do. Moreover, patients who don’t
have access to a compassion club are having to make do with street weed now.)

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.
(MarijuanaNews note: Don’t tell her, but The Netherlands
has just such a system, with cannabis in pharmacies.)
See
The Dutch Start Making
Whole Cannabis Available By Prescription. Radio Netherlands Describes How Coffee
Shops Work. — 2 Items

“So in fact, trial and error is going to be a part of this. I think people
have to be patient.”
(MarijuanaNews note: Trials for the patients and errors by
Health Canada?)

Nonetheless, the delay is an embarrassment for Health Canada. Its former
minister, Allan Rock, pushed 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.
(MarijuanaNews note: They should live so long.
Literally. It takes six months to get an appointment with a specialist in
Canada.)

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 weed 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 pot. As well,
10 permits have been granted to people to grow the marijuana on behalf of sick
people who can’t do it themselves.
See
There Are Already Almost
600,000 Canadian Medical Marijuana Users, But Health Canada Has Only Approved 40
– 2 Articles With Interesting Lesson In Spin.

Canadian Alliance MP Rob Merrifield questioned 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.
(MarijuanaNews note: An embarrassing question. And
the Canadian Alliance is a conservative party.)

The government gave a $5.7-million contract to Prairie Plant Systems to grow
the marijuana in Flin Flon.

(MarijuanaNews note: The people at Prairie Plant Systems are not the bad guys
in this. But they were not chosen for their knowledge of cannabis. Their mine is
highly secure, which sounds very nice to politicians. And they knew nothing
about cannabis, which sounded even better to the politicians.)

Last August, Rock appeared at a photo-op at the mine to announce 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 pot available.

Copyright: 2002 The StarPhoenix

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