MEDICAL USERS SPURN NEW BATCH OF HEALTH CANADA POT

OTTAWA - Some patients are spurning a new batch of
government-certified marijuana, dismissing Health Canada claims that
it's a stronger, better quality smoke.

"It's no good," Marco Renda, 45, said Monday from his home in Dundalk,
Ont. "I took two puffs and I put it out. "It had a chemical taste to
it. It didn't taste right to me and it didn't burn properly. It had no
effect." Prairie Plant Systems, which produces medical marijuana on
contract for Health Canada, began shipping a second batch of its
product on May 21 after getting bad reviews about the initial harvest.

Users complained the first batch last summer was too dry and powdery,
and seemed far less potent than the package claim of THC content at
10.2 per cent. THC is the primary active ingredient in marijuana.

Health Canada says the new batch is 12 per cent THC, plus or minus 1.5
percentage points, has fewer leaves and twigs and more flowering tops,
making it a purer smoke.

"We've listened to complaints . . . that we've received from
stakeholders about the moisture content in the product and of the
potency," said Catherine Saunders, spokeswoman for Health Canada.

"Informally, I've been told . . . that the feedback (on the second
batch) has been positive overall."

But Renda, who runs a website for medical users, said that "whoever
has tried it has given me the feedback that it's not worth it."

And a spokesman for Canadians for Safe Access, a Victoria-based group
representing medical users, is warning all patients away from the new
dope at least until it completes new lab tests.

"Nobody should smoke this stuff until we see test results ourselves
and until we get an explanation from Health Canada about what happened
with the first batch," Philippe Lucas said Monday.

"We've called right now for a moratorium on the use, research and
distribution of this cannabis by all legal medical users."

Lucas says his group had the first batch tested by independent labs,
which found the THC content to be less than half the advertised level
of 10.2 per cent. Internal documents from Health Canada also suggest
the material contains other potentially harmful contaminants, he said.

Health Canada disagrees, saying its own testing shows the marijuana
has acceptably low levels of contaminants and is as potent as claimed.

Currently, there are 70 licensed Canadians who have received Prairie
Plant Systems marijuana, which costs $150 plus GST for a 30-gram bag.
Forty-seven licensed users have also received the company's seeds to
grow their own.

Patients say marijuana helps relieve a variety of symptoms caused by
AIDS, hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis and other medical conditions.
Health Canada - which was required by the courts to provide the
marijuana - says the medical case for marijuana remains unproven.

Almost 600 users have been given permission to grow their own
marijuana from seeds or to have designated growers cultivate it for
them. Most such users and growers obtain their seeds from the black
market.

But some are concerned about Health Canada proposals to end private
cultivation of marijuana by 2007, forcing everyone to either buy
government dope or get it off the streets.

"Patients are pretty fed up with the Health Canada product, and they
do want alternatives," said Eric Nash, a licensed marijuana grower in
Duncan, B.C., whose operation provides for five patients.

"That's the big key, is having a choice of supply rather than being
locked into one supply."

Saunders said the supplier is examining other ways to improve the
product, including changing the moisture content.

Health Canada's $5.75-million contract with Prairie Plant Systems,
which grows its marijuana in an old mine shaft in Flin Flon, Man.,
ends next year. The department is expected to put out to tender
shortly two new contracts to grow government dope.

Health Canada is also rewriting regulations to allow a pilot program
in British Columbia to distribute government marijuana in pharmacies.