FEDERAL MARIJUANA TOO POTENT TO USE

Health Canada's medical tests delayed again; first crop inconsistent,
second crop may be abandoned as too strong, too hard to grow

Dean Beeby and Zev Singer with files from The Canadian Press

The federal government is having problems, again, as it tries to grow the
nation's official crop of medical marijuana.

The news comes at a bad time for Health Canada, which has been told by an
Ontario court to find a way to supply medically authorized users with the
drug rather than making them get it from criminal dealers.

The federal department has been trying to produce a uniform, quality
controlled crop since 2000, when it gave Saskatoon-based Prairie Plant
Systems a $5.75-million contract to grow the stuff inside a mine in Flin
Flon, Man.

Health Canada is growing the drug so that it can test whether it is
effective. It says it must complete the trials before it can supply needy
patients with the drug.

But last year, it became clear that the project was having problems.
Because the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse would not share its
seeds, Prairie Plant systems used seeds from plants seized by Canadian
police. Rather than a consistent crop, the result was a hodge-podge of 185
different varieties.

Asking for patience, the government said it would produce a second crop,
using the two most promising strains from the first. Last summer, Health
Minister Anne McLellan indicated clinical tests would begin by this winter.
They didn't.

That's because the second crop is now having problems. One of the two
strains is very potent, and it is so difficult to grow that it may be
abandoned as too much trouble.

The flowering tops or buds of the strain contain between 20 and 25 per cent
THC, the most active ingredient of marijuana, laboratory results show.

By contrast, American tests on marijuana seized by U.S. police forces
suggest ordinary street marijuana averages about five per cent THC, with
sinsemilla -- considered the champagne of weed -- averaging about 10 per cent.

But the highly potent Flin Flon strain is anemic and tough to grow
successfully.

"We don't want high-maintenance plants," said Cindy Cripps-Prawak, chief of
the federal government'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, which is producing a THC content of between 13 and 18
per cent in its buds could be a better bet. According to Ms. Cripps-Prawak,
such percentages are more in line with what researchers want.

But even still, the crop is nowhere near as abundant as the government had
contracted for. Documents obtained under the Access to Information Act show
that while the contract required delivery of 370 kilograms of high-quality
marijuana last year, Prairie Plant Systems was able to produce only 244
kilograms.

A third strain was held in reserve by the company and Ms. Cripps-Prawak
said the company will use it if a decision is made to abandon the
high-potency strain.

In addition, the contract called for 50 kilograms of placebo product,
containing less than 0.1 per cent THC, to be delivered last year.
Researchers need a placebo product for blind trials to demonstrate whether
THC is effective in alleviating some medical conditions.

But the company has been unable to grow anything with so little THC, and is
considering using chemical means to remove the active ingredient in some of
the existing crop.

The department has withheld payments from Prairie Plant Systems for not
providing a placebo product and for failing to deliver the contracted 370
kilograms last year, Ms. Cripps-Prawak said.

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.

The fresh setback for the government's marijuana crop comes just as an
Ontario court deadline is looming.

In January, Ontario Superior Court Justice Sidney Lederman ruled that the
federal government's Marijuana Medical Access Regulations violated the
Charter of Rights because there is no legal source of marijuana for people
with medical exemptions. He suspended his order for six months to give the
federal government time to "provide for a legal source and supply of the drug."