TORIES KEEP MEDICAL POT

As much as the Tories would probably love to ditch the medical
marijuana program, they have quietly extended the contract with the
government's official pot grower.

The five-year, $5.7-million deal the Liberals inked with Prairie Plant
Systems, which grows Ottawa's weed in an abandoned mine in Manitoba,
expired Friday (after a six-month extension was previously granted).

Now the contract has been stretched until the end of September while
the feds put out a request for proposals for a new five-year deal.

The Tories must wish the whole medical pot issue would just go up in
smoke. In fact, things are about to heat up.

In a recent report, the Canadian AIDS Society (CAS) slammed Ottawa's
marijuana monopoly and urged the government to allow designated
producers to grow pot for multiple people.

Currently, the report noted, sick Canadians can buy government-grown
pot, seeds from the government or grow their own.

Medical pot users can also authorize someone to grow weed for them.
But designated growers can only provide marijuana for one patient.

"We favour providing authorized persons with a variety of legal
options and products," says the CAS paper.

"Eventually, Canada has to develop an adequate model for the
distribution of legal, safe and affordable medical cannabis to ensure
that seriously ill Canadians do not continue to rely on the black market."

It proposes, for instance, that Ottawa authorize compassion clubs to
dispense medical pot.

The federal government may be tempted to ignore the report, but
squirrelling it away on a dusty shelf won't work this time.

Two lawyers on opposite sides of the country are poised to challenge
the government's medical marijuana program on constitutional grounds.

In B.C., lawyer John Conroy is acting for people accused of growing
pot for about 70 compassion club members - a breach of the
one-grower-one-patient rule.

"We're saying that the entire scheme is still defective," says Conroy.
"It doesn't meet the requirements of (properly meeting the needs of
the sick)."

He agrees with the CAS that compassion clubs should be recognized as
legal dispensers of medical pot.

The trial is scheduled for the fall and if Conroy can't resolve the
issue with the Crown, he expects to file a constitutional challenge of
the Ottawa's entire pot program.

In Ontario, lawyer Alan Young is pulling on his boxing gloves for a
similar battle against Ottawa's pot program.

A couple near Ottawa is willing to grow medical pot for about 40
authorized users, but the government says the couple can only produce
weed for one patient, says Young.

Young is taking the case to federal court, arguing that the 1961 UN
Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs doesn't require state ownership of
medical marijuana.

"I'm not going to convince (Ottawa). A court's going to have to tell
them they're wrong," says Young.

There are people who want to grow pot for ill Canadians - and who
would be willing to absorb much of the costs - but Ottawa is afraid of
losing control, he charges.

"They're afraid if they say there can be ownership (of pot), they'll
be flooded with applications by lots of different people to grow."

Ideally, Young would like to see a court ruling that strikes down
Ottawa's pot monopoly so the private sector can begin developing
cannabinoid-based products from the naturally occurring plant - not
just synthetically.

And he agrees with the CAS that until those products are developed,
Ottawa should allow designated producers to supply pot to multiple
patients.

Government pot isn't necessarily bad; it's just that one strain of pot
doesn't work for every ailment, says Young.

The statistics speak for themselves. Of the 1,000 people allowed to
cultivate pot for medical purposes, only 262 are ordering Ottawa's
seeds.

Obviously, Canadians are not gaga over government ganga.