ENTREPRENEURS SEEK POT DEALERS

Cannabis Oil Capsules Are Legal, Couple Says, And Can Help The Immune
System

A Middle Sackville couple is hoping to make high profits with low-grade
marijuana.

Michael Patriquen and his wife, Melanie Stephen, are recruiting dealers
across the country to sell cannabis oil capsules containing four parts per
million THC -- the compound in pot that produces a high.

"There's no psychoactive buzz there at all," Patriquen said yesterday.

The marijuana people smoke to get high contains about 15 per cent THC, or
150,000 parts per million.

But in 1998, Ottawa made it legal for farmers to produce varieties of
cannabis with less than 0.3 per cent THC, or 3,000 parts per million.

"It's 100 per cent above board," said the 48-year-old, who has two
marijuana convictions and will be back in court next year.

The marijuana used to make the capsules was grown in Ontario, and the first
pills arrived in Sackville last week, he said.

While they don't have the painkilling properties of stronger marijuana,
Patriquen said, the capsules can boost the immune system, help asthmatics
breathe easier and even calm premenstrual syndrome.

"Normally, I turn into a bit of a witch once a month; it didn't happen this
month," said Stephen, 46, who has been taking the capsules for six days.

The recommended dosage is three capsules a day, and a bottle of 90 pills
retails for $35. "It works out to about $1 a day," Patriquen said.

Patriquen and Stephen -- who both ran as Marijuana Party candidates in last
fall's federal election -- are advertising "Med-Marijuana dealerships" in
The Coast weekly newspaper and other publications across Canada.

"The response has been phenomenal," Patriquen said, adding that more than
2,000 people have called to ask about setting up their own dealership.

A number of them sounded like curious cops, Patriquen said.

"You can hear the (police) dispatchers in the background," he said with a
chuckle.

Others were simply stoners.

"There were a lot of potheads calling, saying, 'Hey, man, where can I get
some stuff?'" Patriquen said, adding he's sent out about 600 information
kits to potential salespeople.

"We want 84 dealers across the country. We figure that will take about six
months to get the right people in place."

Patriquen was arrested Feb. 28, 2000, and charged with growing and selling
marijuana after police seized several hundred plants, seedlings and
homegrown pot in several communities.

Patriquen's marijuana trafficking trial starts Jan. 16 in Halifax, and
he'll be back in court March 20 to face charges of conspiring to produce
the drug.