RECYCLE SEIZED WEED

Health Canada is now going to demand full payment in advance for
medical marijuana to force patients to pay off old debts (Nov. 1
article). Those who can't pay will have to do without the use of this
drug to combat chronic pain and other symptoms.

It seems outrageous to me that they charge these people $5 a gram or
$20 for 30 seeds for a plant that is essentially a free-growing weed.
Many of these users are very ill and have a very marginal income. At
the same time, Health Canada pays huge sums of money to have this weed
grown in secret, fortified and heavily guarded underground bunkers,
when more than enough marijuana is seized by the police to provide the
under 5,000 people who need it.

So much illegal marijuana is grown that we have to turn the RCMP into
farmers to go out and harvest these crops. Yet instead of having this
free marijuana tested and distributed to the people who have a valid
medical need of it, it is destroyed while Health Canada is needlessly
paying for more of it to be grown. It makes no sense.

Russell A. McManus,

Truro