MEDICAL MARIJUANA HITS STOCK MARKET

It's not every company that heralds its public debut with Moses
Znaimer, the co-founder of CityTV, on one side and a bag of marijuana
from the Canadian government on the other.

But that's exactly how Cannasat Therapeutics Inc. did it yesterday.

Cannasat bills itself as one of a handful of companies in the world
that is researching and developing medicines derived from cannabis plants.

Executives acknowledged at a media conference that the fledgling firm
faces an uphill battle on many fronts -- from the enormous cost and
risk involved in developing new drugs to fighting a social stigma
that conjures up images of police officers on pot busts pulling up
rows of tall green plants and stoned teenagers getting "the munchies."

"Does it give you a buzz?" a reporter asked at one point.

"This is not about fun. It's about function," said a stern Znaimer,
who serves as chairman of Cannasat's board of directors. "This is not
marijuana that people come to because they're looking for a good time."

Shares of Cannasat, whose symbol is "CTH", closed at 40 cents on the
TSX Toronto Venture Exchange yesterday, up 15 cents from the day
before. The stock has been trading on the junior exchange for about a week.

Today marks the kickoff of a promotional campaign by Cannasat that's
meant to raise awareness about Health Canada's Marihuana Medical
Access Regulations or MMAR. The three-year-old program allows people
who suffer from cancer, HIV or AIDS, multiple sclerosis and spinal
cord injuries, among other conditions, to purchase cannabis from the
government.

Users say the drug -- possession of which is technically illegal --
works wonders in alleviating pain, insomnia, loss of appetite, often
more effectively than doctor-prescribed pharmaceuticals, and with
fewer side effects.

About 1,100 people have registered for the government program to
date, but that's believed to be a tiny fraction of medical marijuana users.

Cannasat holds a stake in Prairie Plant Systems, the country's only
legal medical marijuana grower and distributor, which operates under
Health Canada's regulations.

The company has raised about $6.5 million through private financing
in the last two years. About half of that has since been spent on
research and development at its laboratory in Edmonton. The focus of
its work is coming up with effective drug-delivery systems. Aside
from being smoked, marijuana can be absorbed through the skin,
swallowed or inhaled in a nasal spray.

Company officials were tight-lipped about the content of their
patents and where they have been filed.

"It's becoming a very competitive arena," chief executive David Hill
said. Its rivals include U.K.-based GW Pharmaceuticals, makers of
Sativex, an oral spray approved in Canada for treatment of MS-related pain.

Cannasat is still about 18 months away from clinical trials on
people, and five years or so away from bringing products to the
market, said Umar Syed, vice-president scientific and strategic
affairs. "Realistically we would probably need another $10 million to
$15 million in the next two to three years to get us there."

It hopes to eventually find a partner in a big pharmaceutical company
that could handle marketing and distribution.

"We're still just used to thinking of marijuana as an illicit drug.
It's been really robbed of its medical benefits," said Sara Lee
Irwin, Cannasat's director of public relations.

She's also a licensed MMAR user. Irwin was just 32 years old when she
was diagnosed with cancer in her pelvis and hip. For many of the 17
years since, she used powerful painkillers Percodan and Tylene 3, as
well as Vioxx, the arthritis drug recently pulled off the market
after reports that it can increase the risk of heart attack.

The drugs upset her stomach and she worried about long-term effects.
She turned to marijuana about two-and-a-half years ago.

Irwin now gets a monthly supply delivered to her home in a gold bag
for $5 a gram, a cost that she can claim as a medical expense on her
income tax return.

"Pain sort of sits right here and it erodes everything in your life,"
Lee said in an interview, holding her hands directly in front of her face.

"(The marijuana) just moves it off-centre. It's not a big gnawing,
raw sore in the middle of your face. It's good to have just an
awareness of it there, and it doesn't overwhelm you."

Znaimer, considered a television pioneer, takes credit for planting
the seeds for the company.

For years, he watched friends who struggled with inflammatory bowel
disease find relief using marijuana that they didn't get from their
prescribed medications.

He had also heard about new research that suggested cannabis plants
may one day form a whole new class of pharmaceutical drugs.

"I mentioned it to some other guys I know who are in the venture
capital business. They're always saying, 'Hey Mose, what's the next
new thing?'" Znaimer said in an interview. "One thing leads to another."

Canada is one of the few countries in the world where researchers can
access legally grown marijuana for research purposes, Znaimer pointed out.