MARKUP ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA 1,500 PER CENT

OTTAWA - The federal government charges patients 15 times more
for certified medical marijuana than it pays to buy the weed in bulk
from its official supplier, newly released documents show.

Critics say it's unconscionable to charge that high a markup to some
of the country's sickest citizens, who have little income and are
often cut off from their medical-marijuana supply when they can't pay
their government dope bills.

Records obtained under the Access to Information Act show that Health
Canada pays $328.75 for each kilogram of bulk medical marijuana
produced by Prairie Plant Systems Inc.

The firm has a $10.3-million contract with Health Canada to grow
standardized medical marijuana in an abandoned mine shaft in Flin Flon, Man.

Health Canada, in turn, sells the marijuana to a small group of
authorized users for $150 -- plus GST -- for each 30-gram bag of
ground-up flowering tops, with a strength of up to 14 per cent THC,
the main active ingredient. That works out to $5,000 for each
kilogram, or a markup of more than 1,500 per cent.

"At a time when medical cannabis users all too often have to choose
between buying groceries and their medicine, it is unconscionable that
Health Canada .. should be marking up this product 1,500 per cent,"
said Philippe Lucas of Victoria-based Canadians for Safe Access, which
promotes ready access to medical marijuana.

A spokesman for the department, Jason Bouzanis, said the quoted price
of $328.75 a kilogram for bulk marijuana does not include other Health
Canada costs.