RESEARCH FURTHERS MARIJUANA'S MOVE INTO MAINSTREAM

VANCOUVER -- Eric Nash and Wendy Little have 45 marijuana plants that
they grow at a secret location for two people who are registered with
the federal government to receive medicinal marijuana.

They have another 45 plants that they hope will become the source for
the world's first certified, organic cannabis-based medicine for
patients with pain from multiple sclerosis and AIDS.

After two years of consultations with Ottawa, the Vancouver Island
couple have received federal government approval to expand their
fledgling business and begin research on developing the organic,
cannabis-based medicine.

The research project is the most recent development in the gradual
movement of marijuana from counterculture to mainstream of Canadian
society.

Jirina Vlk, a media relations officer for Health Canada, declined to
comment on the Vancouver Island project, saying Canada's privacy law
prohibits the government from providing any information about research
or about suppliers for the medicinal marijuana program.

Mr. Nash, 47, worked for the City of Victoria's parks department and
the B.C. Ministry of Forests before becoming a provider of medicinal
marijuana. Ms. Little, 44, was a high-school teacher.

The federal government recognized their company, Island Harvest, as a
producer of medicinal marijuana in 2002, Mr. Nash said.

Since then, Health Canada received requests from 54 patients for their
marijuana. However, Health Canada has allowed the firm to supply only
two people, he said.

An Ontario Court of Appeal decision in 2003 allowed ill people to
obtain marijuana from designated growers. The ruling was initially
believed to open the door to large-scale private cultivation.

However, the federal government has restricted private production,
despite the court ruling, Mr. Nash said. Patients are encouraged to
obtain their marijuana from Prairie Plant Systems, a government-backed
biotechnology company growing marijuana in an unused mine outside Flin
Flon, Man., he said.

The development of an organic, cannabis-based medicine would exempt
their company from restrictions placed on medicinal marijuana, he
said. The product would be available at pharmacies in unlimited supply
through prescription.Mr. Nash said a company called PhytoCan
Pharmaceuticals will do research over the next 12 to 18 months on
whether the medicine should be a spray, liquid or solid and how to
standardize the ingredients.

Federal approval for research by PhytoCan was given three months after
Health Canada approved Sativex, a cannabis-based drug for relief of
neuropathic pain in adults with multiple sclerosis.

Sativex, manufactured in the United Kingdom by GW Pharmaceuticals, is
administrated by a spray pump under the tongue or inside the cheek.

Mr. Nash's project has received the endorsement of Vancouver's chief
public health officer, John Blatherwick, who has often been among the
first to advocate controversial positions on health care that more
traditional authorities eventually adopted.

Dr. Blatherwick, who was invested in the Order of Canada for his
public-health advocacy, depicted the research as part of the move
toward legalization of marijuana.

"We supported the group because they say we need to do proper
research," Dr. Blatherwick said yesterday in an interview.

"That is one of the cop-outs people [who oppose legalization of
marijuana] always use. So fund proper research and get some of the
answers."

"It is pretty clear you have to go a little beyond decriminalization,"
he added. "We have it decriminalized now, essentially, and it is still
not working. . . . There is still huge profits being made in having
illegal grow-ops and selling marijuana."

Dr. Blatherwick was an early supporter of smoking bans, safe-injection
sites for hard-drug users, needle exchanges and making condoms
available in schools.