Medical Marijuana News & Research

Facts and figures about government-certified marijuana grown in Flin Flon:

Purpose -- Health Canada wants standardized supply for accredited researchers to determine whether the substance has health benefits.

Contract -- In December 2000, Prairie Plant Systems Inc. of Saskatoon awarded a five-year, $5.75-million contract to grow marijuana for Health Canada in an abandoned mine section in Flin Flon. The Trout Lake mine, owned by Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co., is still active, producing zinc and copper.

Source -- Prairie Plant Systems originally to obtain quality seeds from the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Md. Delays forced them instead to use more than 10,000 seeds seized by various police forces across Canada. Only a third produced plants.

First crop -- First crop of 74 kg delivered December 2001 had 185 varieties, with broad range of quality. Two best strains later picked for their hardiness and potency. Another strain held in reserve.

Second crop -- Second crop of 244 kg delivered in December 2002, based on planted cuttings from the two best strains to ensure genetic consistency. Crop fell short of the 370 kg required.

Tests -- Laboratory tests show one strain contains 20% to 25% THC, the most active ingredient, while the other has 13% to 18%. But the more potent strain is anemic and may be abandoned. There is a seasonal variation in the THC content, even though the crop is produced far underground.

Processing and storage -- Dried crop stored at Flin Flon to be bagged in 30-gram foil packs and labelled as necessary. No plans at present to produce rolled marijuana cigarettes.

Current trials -- The Community Research Initiative of Toronto is testing the effect of marijuana on the appetites of AIDS patients. A group at McGill University in Montreal is testing the effects of smoked marijuana on neuropathic pain. Health Canada provides funding but not the marijuana, which currently comes from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Future trials -- Health Canada is awaiting approval of proposed research projects before distributing its own marijuana.

CN MB: Gov't Pot Packs Punch
Pubdate: Mon, 21 Apr 2003
Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB)
Contact: editor@wpgsun.com
Copyright: 2003 Canoe Limited Partnership
Website: http://www.fyiwinnipeg.com/winsun.shtml
Author: Canadian Press

GOV'T POT PACKS PUNCH
But Strain Too Much Trouble To Grow

A strain of government-certified marijuana is extremely potent but difficult to grow, and may eventually be abandoned as too much trouble, officials say.

The flowering tops or buds of the strain, grown for Health Canada in a vacant mine section in Flin Flon, contain between 20% and 25% THC, the most active ingredient of marijuana, laboratory results show.

American tests on marijuana seized by U.S. police forces suggest ordinary street dope averages about 5% THC, with sinsemilla -- considered the champagne of weed -- averaging about 10%.

But the highly potent Flin Flon strain -- one of two official strains that together produced a crop of 244 kilograms last fall -- is anemic and tough to grow successfully.

Scientific Proof

"We don't want high-maintenance plants," said Cindy Cripps-Prawak, chief of Ottawa's medical marijuana program. "It's still unclear to me whether or not that is going to be the strain we're going to continue with."

The second strain is producing a respectable THC content as well, between 13% and 18% in its buds. Those levels are more in line with the needs of clinical trials, said Cripps-Prawak.

"By and large, the researchers have told us they're interested more in the lower-range plants, the lower-range THC content" of about 15% or less, she said from Ottawa.

Health Canada has said it will not make any of its marijuana available directly to needy patients because it first wants to see scientific proof about whether the drug is effective.

Instead, patients approved by Health Canada must either grow their own marijuana or have someone else grow it for them.

If Health Canada agrees to abandon its high-potency strain, it will be another setback in a problem-plagued project to grow standardized Canadian marijuana for medical trials that will determine whether the drug offers any benefits -- such as pain relief -- to the chronically ill.

Cripps-Prawak said the company will use the third reserve strain if a decision is made to abandon the high-potency strain.

The department has withheld payments from Prairie Plant Systems for not providing a placebo product and for failing to deliver the contracted 370 kg last year, she added.

The company is currently testing blending procedures -- mixing buds, leaves and small twigs -- to produce five different grades of marijuana with differing potencies.

None of the government-approved marijuana has been sent to researchers yet pending approval of their proposals by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

-- SEE ARCHIVED STORIES BELOW FOR HISTORY OF FLIN FLON GROW:

Medical marijuana program thrown for a loop
when U.S. refused to supply seeds

DENNIS BUECKERT
© Copyright 2002
Canadian Press
Tuesday, May 07, 2002

OTTAWA (CP) - U.S. drug-enforcement authorities threw Health Canada's medical marijuana program for a loop by refusing to provide access to their research-quality supply of seeds. The story about what went wrong in the medical pot program emerged Tuesday for the first time, as Health Minister Anne McLellan explained protracted delays in providing marijuana to eligible patients.

The program was intended for people dying or suffer from specific painful conditions, both for research and for compassionate reasons.

Former health minister Allan Rock announced details of the program in April 2001, saying the marijuana was supposed to be available by January.

But it emerged Tuesday at a committee meeting that U.S. authorities refused last year to supply Canada with reliable, tested seeds. The U.S. decision wasn't announced at the time, nor was it mentioned by Rock.

That left Health Canada to use seeds police had confiscated, which have produced a crop containing at least 185 different varieties of pot, from dynamite to dud quality.

McLellan isn't giving any new target dates for availability.

"We remain committed to ensuring that eligible Canadians have access to a standardized supply of research-grade marijuana for medical purposes," McLellan told the Commons health committee.

"While our policy has not changed, our time lines have."

The situation raises questions about how Rock could announce a high-profile plan to grow medical marijuana without having an assured source of seeds.

In December 2000, Prairie Plant Systems of Saskatoon was chosen to provide Health Canada with quality, standardized marijuana, to be delivered by January 2002.

The projection was based on the assumption that Prairie Plant Systems would have access to reliable, tested seeds, McLellan said.

Assistant deputy Health Minister Dann Michols said Health Canada negotiated for months to get seeds from the U.S. National Institute of Drug Abuse, which did marijuana research that has ended.

"They had the only legal source of supply of marijuana but they needed clearance from the Drug Enforcement Agency and it didn't come." said Michols.

He said he didn't know why access was refused, but conceded there are people in the U.S. government opposed to research on marijuana's benefits.

Michols said Prairie Plant Systems will have to sort through the seeds they have to find those with the right characteristics to establish a standardized supply. That could take months.

McLellan said problems are to be expected since Health Canada's effort to make medical marijuana available is the first such program in the world.

Once a standardized, potent supply of marijuana has been developed, Health Canada will conduct clinical trials to establish its therapeutic benefits, which will take additional years.

"No one is more concerned than I am in relation to this situation but . . . trial and error is going to be a part of it and I think people have to be patient," said McLellan.

"These are medical trials and therefore we have to make sure that we have a standardized product. If not, what would you be saying about the Department of Health and what would you be saying about me?"

The department will continue to permit people with a doctor's approval to grow their own pot, or get someone to grow it for them, even though that product obviously won't be standardized.

DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE
http://www.drugpolicy.org
eNewsletter: Thursday, May 9, 2002

MEDICAL MARIJUANA DELAY IN CANADA

After coming up with a batch of weak marijuana that would prove an unnecessary health risk for Canada's medical marijuana patients, Health Canada, the government entity overseeing Canada's legal medical marijuana program, is casting blame at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for its failure to provide legal marijuana seeds. The Canadian government has been growing marijuana in a secure underground mine, marijuana intended for people dying or suffer from specific painful conditions, both for research and for compassionate reasons. When U.S. authorities refused to supply seeds from plants legally grown in Mississippi for the seven grandfathered beneficiaries of the U.S. government's now closed compassionate use program, Health Canada turned to seeds police had confiscated. As a result the medical marijuana grown by Health Canada was of inconsistent quality and deemed not good enough for medicinal use. The repeat inhalation required of weaker marijuana strains was considered unacceptable.

In their quest for a standardized supply of research grade medical marijuana, Health Canada ignored the offers of various compassion clubs that operate in Canada and established Canadian seed growers that market their product worldwide, despite its illegality. Canadian authorities claim they don't now why access to U.S. government seeds was refused, but concede there are people in the U.S. government opposed to research on marijuana's benefits. Once a standardized, sufficiently potent supply of marijuana has been developed, Health Canada will conduct clinical trials to establish its therapeutic benefits, which will take additional years. In the meantime Health Canada will continue to permit people with a doctor's approval to grow their own pot, or get someone to grow it for them.

Pubdate: Fri, 10 May 2002
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2002 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: letters@thecitizen.southam.ca
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
Author: Mack McLeod

POT GROWERS COULD SUPPLY THE RIGHT SEEDS
Re: Government admits: Our marijuana is bad weed, May 8.

I remember reading that Marc Emery, a Vancouver mail-order merchant, had offered seeds to the government for its medicinal marijuana project. A simple search of the Web also reveals seed merchants worldwide who are happy to sell known strains. The Canadian west coast has the most advanced medical cannabis growers on the planet.

Yet our government asked the United States to supply us with something we have not only in abundance, but also for something in which Canada has world leaders in knowledge concerning the use of various strains for different ailments. Why does our government refuse to acknowledge its citizens' superiority?

It seems to me that Health Canada isn't serious about this issue. To ask sick and dying people for patience is ridiculous, when all the knowledge and material is readily accessible. Using police-confiscated material was bound to yield this predictably inconsistent result. Perhaps it was the intention to fail.

And why did the Ontario Medical Association advise doctors not to sign the new medical marijuana access regulation forms for the medical exemptees? Is it because the forms ask doctors to make a declaration of medical efficacy that they can't prove? How could the new regulations have been written without the agreement of doctors to use the forms? Perhaps again, it's a regulation designed to fail.

So which is it: incredible incompetence or intentional failure?

Mack McLeod,
Thornhill

Subj: CN BC: PUB LTE: 'I Offered Them Seed'
From: puff_tuff
Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 18:33:00 -0700
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n912.a10.html
Pubdate: Mon, 13 May 2002
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 The Province
Contact: provletters@pacpress.southam.ca
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Author: Marc Emery

"I OFFERED THEM SEED"

I offered any seed out of our our hundreds of strains to Health Canada at no charge, in any quantity, on numerous occasions.

The government declined, one might presume, because what I do is still considered illegal. Yet, Health Canada is also growing marijuana, and that's illegal. But the government gave itself an exemption.

They could have given themselves an exemption in obtaining seeds from me, but chose not to. Bureaucracy and false pride by Health Canada has led to further humiliation of the sick and dying.

Marijuana is not a drug, it's a plant, and no two plants will ever be identical. Therefore, the government can never achieve its objective of a "consistent, quantifiable" THC amount even within the same strain.

Marc Emery,
Vancouver Marijuana Party,
Candidate for Mayor

Subj: CN BC: PUB LTE: Feds To Blame For Flin Flon Pot Flop
From: puff_tuff
Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 12:45:41 -0700
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n910.a03.html
Pubdate: Mon, 13 May 2002
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 The Province
Contact: provletters@pacpress.southam.ca
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Author: Michael C. Hansen

FEDS TO BLAME FOR FLIN FLON POT FLOP

As the Flin Flon experiment proves to be a flop, federal officials have no one to blame but themselves.

The people at Prairie Plant Systems have NO experience in growing cannabis.

There is an old saying in the medicinal cannabis arena: "Different strains for different pains."

The 185 different strains at Flin Flon could be "cloned," and research done as to which strains do the best job for the many different health problems they help.

Most of us in medicinal cannabis support groups already know this and are using the "different strains for different pains" method.

The inept government did have the correct seeds, but it didn't have the correct team or knowledge to properly run this medicinal cannabis grow-operation.

If the grow contract had been given to the people who know the cannabis plant, a safe organic crop would have been distributed to the sick -- guaranteed.

It's time to pull the plug on this misappropriation of health funds, now.

Michael C. Hansen,
Founder, Canadian Hemp Growers Association, Delta

FEDS' MEDICINAL-POT DEBACLE WAS PREDICTABLE

The latest excuse from our bumbling bureaucrats concerning the inadequate seeds the government has used in its medicinal-marijuana program (Gazette, May 8, "Feds' pot is below par") is just one more to add to the long list of what appear to be stalling tactics by a government that is still seething that the courts forced it to create a medical-marijuana program against its wishes. (Although it's not as if there is no precedent for such a move: the medicare system in the Netherlands now includes a medical-marijuana program.)

Asking the Taliban-like drug-war zealots of the American Drug Enforcement Agency for marijuana seeds is akin to asking Dracula to part with some blood; everybody knew the answer would be "no" beforehand. The government likely knew as well but thought it would provide a wonderful excuse.

Hemp-Quebec Seeds and Marc Emery Seeds are just two of the legitimate tax-paying Canadian seed companies that carry about 500 different high-quality seeds from all over the world. Yet the government refused even to consider involving them in its growing operation.

Canada could have also approached countries like Britain, Italy and Spain, where universities and pharmaceutical companies are carrying out extensive marijuana research. The most obvious source would have been Holland, which has leading expertise in marijuana genetics and hundreds of seed banks. Instead, the government asked the rabid U.S. anti-drug agency.

When that failed, it came up with the brilliant plan to use unknown strains of seeds that had been confiscated by police, which is equivalent to putting your hand in the cabinet with your eyes closed. Many people warned of the problems this would cause, as there are over 1,000 different marijuana strains.

We have also learned that the most important prerequisite to be allowed to grow marijuana for the government was to have no prior experience in growing marijuana. Many will see this as an obvious metaphor: the way to get a government contract is to be totally unqualified.

Either this whole seed debacle is the result of incompetence of a level rarely seen before, or our government has played the country beautifully. Either way, Canadians, or at least the 90-per-cent majority that supports medical marijuana, should be outraged.

Lyle Howard Seave
Saint-Felicien, QC

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Mack McLeod, Thornhill

Mack McLeod,
Thornhill