POT ACTIVISTS SEND SAMPLE TO HEALTH MINISTER

No Response Yet To Offer To Supply Top-Quality Cannabis For Clinical Trials

Walter Tucker and Michael Baldasaro are seeking a federal contract to
supply Health Canada with medical marijuana.

Two Ontario advocates of medicinal marijuana want to know what Allan Rock,
the federal Health Minister, has done with their pot.

Walter Tucker and Michael Baldasaro, who say they are brothers in the
Hamilton, Ont.-based Church of the Universe, are seeking a federal contract
to supply Health Canada with top-grade cannabis for clinical trials.

The government said it will hold the trials to determine whether the weed
can help ease the suffering of cancer and AIDS patients.

Hoping to spark discussions, the pair of longtime marijuana activists
mailed the minister a sample of their finest "medical quality" bud on Sept. 2.

But to date they have heard nothing from Parliament Hill. Not a letter. Not
a visit from the RCMP. Not even a giggly late-night phone call from someone
looking for a pizza.

"It's puzzling," Brother Tucker said yesterday.

"We thought this would get Mr. Rock talking."

The two-gram offering, neatly wrapped in a tiny plastic bag decorated with
a green pot leaf, came from a southern Ontario hydroponic farmer and meets
the highest standards, said the abbot and founder of the church.

"B.C. might have something better, but this is considered primo," said
Brother Tucker, noting that several members of his loosely focused
religious organization, which uses marijuana as a sacrament and practises
nudity, performed quality-control tests before forwarding the package to
Ottawa.

Brother Tucker said the church already supplies a number of doctors and
patients in the Hamilton area with "medicinal" pot, but would gladly
curtail its operations if the federal government would move to set up a
safe and ready supply of the drug.

He said the health minister's announcement last week that a dozen more
chronically ill Canadians have been given permits to use the drug to
curtail their pain is welcome, but he also questioned where those patients
are supposed to obtain their medicine.

Yesterday, a spokesman for Mr. Rock said neither the minister's office nor
Health Canada has any record indicating it received the sample. Derek Kent
added that the ministry is not looking for suppliers.

Brother Tucker said he is disturbed at the disappearance of his gift to the
Crown, but hopes someone put it to good use.

"I hope they smoked it. ... They'd really get off," he said.