OTTAWA APPEALS FOR CANNABIS SUPPLIES

The Canadian Government is asking individuals or firms to supply it
with a steady crop of high-grade cannabis for clinical trials of the
drug's medical value, when in most cases cannabis is illegal to use in
Canada and not approved for medicinal use by any other country.

"I think we're all kind of new at this," said a government spokesman,
acknowledging that Ottawa was moving into uncharted waters - the
Government did not usually ask its citizens to produce illegal drugs.

The Health Minister, Allan Rock, said he wanted bidders on a
five-year, C$5 million (HK$26 million) contract to set up a domestic
cannabis-growing operation. The winner would be responsible for
maintaining quality control, storage and distribution to eligible
recipients and would be required to maintain strict security at his
cannabis farm.

Mr Rock's action follows two court rulings, one last year that said an
Aids patient could use cannabis to relieve pain and to stimulate
appetite, and one in 1997 that gave a Toronto epileptic the right to
use the drug.

So far the Government has given about 40 Canadians an exemption to the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to allow them to legally use
cannabis. But some have complained that they are unable to secure a
legal source of the substance.

Mr Rock said the Government's goal was to establish a source of
quality, standardised, affordable, research-grade cannabis.

Existing growers - many, particularly on Canada's west coast, have big
clandestine hydroponic pot gardens - would presumably be ineligible to
bid. "If you are growing it already you are growing it illegally,"
said a government spokesman.

Mr Rock has made a personal admission to having smoked cannabis on
occasion, and even to having inhaled it.