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The420Guy
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OTTAWA -- The federal government's first legal supply of marijuana will come from
high-tech greenhouses hundreds of metres below the ground in an unused part of a copper and zinc mine near remote Flin Flon, Man.
Health Canada announced yesterday that biotechnology firm Prairie Plant Systems of
Saskatoon had won the first government contract to legally produce marijuana for medical purposes, in a five-year, $5.7-million deal.
The high-tech, subterranean growing environment, normally used to keep in the genetically modified seeds and pollen of plants grown for pharmaceutical purposes, was in part chosen because it will keep potential pot thieves out. "In this case, it's for the two-legged biological control," said Brent Zettl, president of Prairie Plant Systems.
The awarding of the contract solves a conundrum for the government, which had seen courts in Ontario and Alberta strike down marijuana laws because they did not allow for medical use, but had not yet identified a legal supplier.
However, Health Canada officials gave no indication whether Ottawa will loosen its policy on medical marijuana, which now allows legal use only by patients in clinical studies and by about 140 people with medical exemptions.
Medical-marijuana proponents said that unless those policies are made less
restrictive, they will continue to challenge the current drug laws in court.
Under the contract, Prairie Plant Systems will supply at least 1,865 kilograms of marijuana in cigarette and dried-leaf form. That means the marijuana will cost slightly
more than $3 per gram, less than a third of the $10-15 street price.
The first delivery to the government will not take place for a year, however, and Health Canada officials said they have not yet decided how they will distribute the drug to patients who use it under a doctor's orders, or whether those patients will pay.
Judy Gomber, the director-general of Health Canada's Drug Strategy and Controlled Substances Program, said they are considering whether it will be distributed through pharmacies, delivered or made available through government offices.
"We imagine we have a few months to take into account the distribution details," she said.
However, some marijuana activists said the government will have to do a lot more to avoid fresh legal battles.
Marc-Boris St-Maurice, the leader of the Marijuana Party who was arrested for selling
marijuana at Montreal's Compassion Club where the drug is sold to those who bring a note from a doctor, said the government must widen its exemption system to allow any patient with a doctor's prescription to obtain it.
He noted that earlier this month, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench gave Grant Krieger, a Calgary man who suffers from a chronic disease of the nervous system, the
right to grow marijuana for his own use, even though he does not have a government
medical exemption.
In July, the Ontario Court of Appeal struck down criminal laws banning marijuana
possession, but gave the government one year to revise the law to allow for medical use of the drug.
"The government has reacted in a very shortsighted way. They haven't addressed the issue of doctors and prescriptions," Mr. St-Maurice said. "They haven't tied up all
the loose ends. They're far from being done with us."
The government's proposal to provide the marijuana in cigarette form also came under fire from an antismoking group, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, who criticized the
government for planning to distribute marijuana in cancer-causing form when
smoke-free forms, such as marijuana brownies, could have been tried.
Prairie Plant Systems beat out 34 other bidders for the medical-marijuana contract, a deal that will require the company to provide two types of marijuana with
controlled levels of THC, the ingredient that causes intoxication. A regular strain will always be 5 to 6 per cent THC, while a placebo strain for clinical tests will have less than 0.1 per cent THC.
The company, founded in 1988 with a plan to produce Saskatoon Berry trees for farming,
branched out into carefully controlled plant biotechnology including producing plants for
ingredients in drugs to fight diseases such as cancer, Mr. Zettl said.
Since 1991, it has produced specialized plants in a mine owned by Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting, and will grow the marijuana in a similar process, he said.
Newshawk: Carey Ker
Source: The Globe and Mail
Contact: letters@globeandmail.ca
Pubdate: Friday, December 22, 2000
Author: CAMPBELL CLARK
high-tech greenhouses hundreds of metres below the ground in an unused part of a copper and zinc mine near remote Flin Flon, Man.
Health Canada announced yesterday that biotechnology firm Prairie Plant Systems of
Saskatoon had won the first government contract to legally produce marijuana for medical purposes, in a five-year, $5.7-million deal.
The high-tech, subterranean growing environment, normally used to keep in the genetically modified seeds and pollen of plants grown for pharmaceutical purposes, was in part chosen because it will keep potential pot thieves out. "In this case, it's for the two-legged biological control," said Brent Zettl, president of Prairie Plant Systems.
The awarding of the contract solves a conundrum for the government, which had seen courts in Ontario and Alberta strike down marijuana laws because they did not allow for medical use, but had not yet identified a legal supplier.
However, Health Canada officials gave no indication whether Ottawa will loosen its policy on medical marijuana, which now allows legal use only by patients in clinical studies and by about 140 people with medical exemptions.
Medical-marijuana proponents said that unless those policies are made less
restrictive, they will continue to challenge the current drug laws in court.
Under the contract, Prairie Plant Systems will supply at least 1,865 kilograms of marijuana in cigarette and dried-leaf form. That means the marijuana will cost slightly
more than $3 per gram, less than a third of the $10-15 street price.
The first delivery to the government will not take place for a year, however, and Health Canada officials said they have not yet decided how they will distribute the drug to patients who use it under a doctor's orders, or whether those patients will pay.
Judy Gomber, the director-general of Health Canada's Drug Strategy and Controlled Substances Program, said they are considering whether it will be distributed through pharmacies, delivered or made available through government offices.
"We imagine we have a few months to take into account the distribution details," she said.
However, some marijuana activists said the government will have to do a lot more to avoid fresh legal battles.
Marc-Boris St-Maurice, the leader of the Marijuana Party who was arrested for selling
marijuana at Montreal's Compassion Club where the drug is sold to those who bring a note from a doctor, said the government must widen its exemption system to allow any patient with a doctor's prescription to obtain it.
He noted that earlier this month, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench gave Grant Krieger, a Calgary man who suffers from a chronic disease of the nervous system, the
right to grow marijuana for his own use, even though he does not have a government
medical exemption.
In July, the Ontario Court of Appeal struck down criminal laws banning marijuana
possession, but gave the government one year to revise the law to allow for medical use of the drug.
"The government has reacted in a very shortsighted way. They haven't addressed the issue of doctors and prescriptions," Mr. St-Maurice said. "They haven't tied up all
the loose ends. They're far from being done with us."
The government's proposal to provide the marijuana in cigarette form also came under fire from an antismoking group, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, who criticized the
government for planning to distribute marijuana in cancer-causing form when
smoke-free forms, such as marijuana brownies, could have been tried.
Prairie Plant Systems beat out 34 other bidders for the medical-marijuana contract, a deal that will require the company to provide two types of marijuana with
controlled levels of THC, the ingredient that causes intoxication. A regular strain will always be 5 to 6 per cent THC, while a placebo strain for clinical tests will have less than 0.1 per cent THC.
The company, founded in 1988 with a plan to produce Saskatoon Berry trees for farming,
branched out into carefully controlled plant biotechnology including producing plants for
ingredients in drugs to fight diseases such as cancer, Mr. Zettl said.
Since 1991, it has produced specialized plants in a mine owned by Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting, and will grow the marijuana in a similar process, he said.
Newshawk: Carey Ker
Source: The Globe and Mail
Contact: letters@globeandmail.ca
Pubdate: Friday, December 22, 2000
Author: CAMPBELL CLARK
