OTTAWA MUST DECIDE WHAT TO DO ABOUT POT

There are persuasive arguments in favour of legalizing marijuana for the
personal use of patients who could benefit from it.

We have argued for years that the drug should be made available for those
patients who cannot keep food down, who have no appetite or who suffer from
multiple sclerosis, cancer, arthritis or AIDS.

But it's hard for us to agree that the production of legal grass for
seriously ill patients should be run by the government.

Not with its poor track record.

Those who favour legalized grass often argue the government should regulate
marijuana production, tax the product and distribute it much in the way the
LCBO distributes alcoholic beverages. They hold out the promise of huge tax
revenues as a way of convincing politicians and bureaucrats who worry about
Reefer Madness on our street corners.

But only last week we commented on the fact the federal government's
$5.7-million grow operation in an unused mine in Flin Flon, Manitoba, was
six months behind schedule, its marijuana crop was unuseable and none of
the 250 kilograms harvested would reach the patients whose suffering it
might ease.

This year's crop is much more potent than last year's -- but too potent to
use -- and the operation failed to grow a mild placebo version of the plant
to be tested in blind trials.

In other words, two years and millions of dollars later, the operation is a
huge flop.

We find it curious the crop the government was growing was never intended
for use by the suffering. Health Canada wants to test it first to see if
there is any scientific proof that marijuana eases patients' discomfort.

But if that is the case, why then did the government issue permits to 36
Canadians allowing them to legally grow marijuana or to designate a grower
to supply them with an "untested" drug? If the government isn't sure use of
marijuana makes life easier for those patients, why permit these people to
grow it and the patients to use it?

On the other hand, if Ottawa wants to test the efficacy of marijuana, why
not use the grass these people are already successfully growing, rather
than waste $5.7 million on a project in Flin Flon that has failed two years
in a row?

Not only are these 36 Canadians successfully growing marijuana, Eric Nash
and his wife Wendy Little of Duncan, B.C., have even had their crop
officially certified as 100 per cent organic.

If ordinary people can succeed at producing medically usable pot that is
organically grown, why can't the government?

If the government cannot succeed at it, despite spending millions on the
project, it should scrap its grow operation and test the marijuana from the
growers who are intending it for use by these patients.

Our federal politicians have to evolve their marijuana policies to blend
with the public's views on how grass should be used and when its use should
be penalized. So far, there's been too much contradictory regulation and
confusion that has only worsened the situation.

It's time for Ottawa to either grow or get off the pot.