FEDS MAKING HUGE MEDICAL-POT PROFIT

OTTAWA -- The federal government charges patients 15 times more for
medical marijuana than it pays to buy the weed in bulk from its
official supplier, 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 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 grown
by Prairie Plant Systems Inc.

The company currently has a $10.3-million contract with Health Canada
to grow a standardized product in a 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.

"It's impossible for a person on disability," said Ron Lawrence, 38, a
burn victim in Windsor, Ont., who needs marijuana to control severe
pain. "The sickest people are the ones who need it the most . . .
they're the ones who don't work."

Adds Scott McCluskey, 48, in Westbank, B.C., who suffers spinal-cord
pain: "They're selling it for criminal street prices. I don't think
anybody should have to pay this type of money for medicine."

Patients order marijuana through Prairie Plant Systems, which
typically delivers the product by Purolator courier.

Currently, 149 patients are officially in arrears -- almost a third of
the 514 patients who order government-certified dope.