POT PLAN A PUFF AWAY

Rock Expected To Announce Today Canada Will Grow Marijuana

OTTAWA -- Health Canada's going to pot.

Health Minister Allan Rock is expected to announce today that Health Canada
will start its own marijuana plantations.

Sources say Rock will reveal today he's in the process of finalizing a
business plan to develop a government-controlled pot farm in Canada.

He intends to ensure Canadians who need marijuana for medicinal purposes
have a 'made in Canada' brand, the sources say.

As well, they said Rock will grant two exemptions under the Controlled
Drugs and Substances Act permitting two individuals to grow and use
marijuana. The government has received more than 30 applications from
Canadians wanting permission to legally smoke dope to ease their illness
pains.

Toronto AIDS sufferer Jim Wakeford is expected to receive one of the
exemptions. Wakeford won the legal right to grow and smoke marijuana under
a constitutional exemption last month granted by an Ontario Superior Court
judge.

CRITICIZED SLOW REACTION

The ruling criticized the federal government for its slowness in handling
applications by dying patients for medicinal marijuana.

Rock is expected to reveal details of clinical trials on the medicinal
benefits of marijuana and spell out who will qualify to participate in the
trials when he tables a status report on the Medicinal Marijuana Research
Plan this morning.

But while Health Canada prepares its pot fields for planting, sources say
government officials will sanction Community Research Initiative of Toronto
to go to Mississippi -- where all U.S. government scientific research on
marijuana is conducted -- to study its methods.

Although the minister wants Canadians in need of dope for health reasons to
have their own domestic supply, he wants to be able to use U.S. marijuana
until ours is ready for harvest.

As well, Rock is expected to announce that Health Canada is negotiating to
conduct clinical trials with a British firm that makes a marijuana soup. He
wants to determine whether the soup-like drug relieves pain and nausea in
the terminally ill.