SHOW US YOUR BEST BUZZ, GROWERS TOLD

Feds Seek Marijuana For Clinical Trials

OTTAWA -- Health Minister Allan Rock issued a call yesterday to all pot
growers to send him their resumes.

Rock officially launched a program to begin clinical trials to test the
effects of smoking marijuana and called for pot entrepreneurs to put
together a business plan spelling out how they would grow the weed for
government use.

"We're going to be putting the job out to tender to find somebody who can
grow us a reliable, consistent quality (marijuana product) for research
purposes," Rock announced yesterday.

"Once we do that, we'll go out to tender and we'll receive bids. I hope
that by the fall we'll have somebody that we can identify as a source."

Rock announced several months ago his department was developing guidelines
for trials that could lead to the legalization of marijuana for medical
purposes. He insisted this move in no way signals the legalization of pot
for general use.

Rock also announced the okay for two Canadians to grow and smoke dope for
their own medicinal purposes and said his department will deal quickly with
some 30 other applicants wanting to grow marijuana.

Toronto AIDS sufferer Jim Wakeford and Ottawa epilepsy victim Jean Charles
Pariseau are both exempted under the Controlled Substance Act, allowing
them to cultivate and smoke their own pot.

Pariseau, 31, was elated with the news, saying his debilitating disease
leaves him with little appetite or energy. Marijuana increases his
appetite and keeps up his strength, he said.

"I'm going to be able to eat with my family all the time ... get munchies
and smoke my dope and take my pills," Pariseau said. "I don't think
anybody can take 51 pills a day and not smoke dope."

Pariseau, who has been using marijuana for some time, said he buys his
seeds to grow his weed from a store on Bank St.

Rock intends to seek help from the University of Mississippi, where pot is
grown for U.S. government research, to help with the Canadian work. Ottawa
also is negotiating with a British firm to conduct research on liquid pot
which is breathed in by an inhaler.