GROOVY

Considering the Ottawa Liberals' track record in matters like these, it was all
but guaranteed to happen. AIDS sufferers and other chronic pain victims who are
part of the federal government's dubious and controversial medicinal marijuana
program are complaining about the quality of the government dope and are
demanding their money back.

Some of them complained that despite consuming a large amount of the feds'
smoke they only felt a slight "buzziness" that lasted for a few minutes. (Gee,
wasn't the program supposed to have something to do with pain relief?)

And another said he had to smoke so much of the inferior dope that it made him
throw up. Considering the reason he got a permit for medicinal marijuana in the
first place was to alleviate the nausea associated with AIDS, it would seem to
be counterproductive.

Remember, this isn't the "righteous quality" grass that reportedly comes from
illegal hydroponic grow operations or secret mountain valley plantations in the
West Kootenays.

It's produced directly from the federal government's own marijuana farm down an
old nickel mine in northern Manitoba, where the stuff is grown under tight
security. Only a whacky politician like ex-health minister Allan Rock could
come up with a goofy operation like that.

A goofy operation, we should emphasize, that doesn't appear to work. Or, at
least, work to the satisfaction of clinical marijuana users.

It's just another in the long list of bloopers and blunders at the hands of the
chronically incompetent federal Liberal government.

It's also something that Canadian doctors said about the government's strange
clinical marijuana experiment from the beginning.

How can a medical doctor, who is supposed to operate under strict scientific
principles, prescribe marijuana when its therapeutic benefits have not been
proven and there is no way to effectively measure the amount of drug that
patients are taking?

The prescribed dosage is pretty much "toke until you feel good."

The fact that the feds' own highly regulated grow operation is clearly unable
to control the amount of THC in its weed not only confirms the doctors'
concerns, but it also brings into question their whole bizarre concept in the
first place.

Health Minister Anne McLellan is on record saying she opposes the program that
was imposed on the feds by an Ontario judge.

Complaints by the medicinal pot users should only add fuel to the fire. But in
the meantime the Liberals' credibility gap only got wider.

And all we can say is "Far out, man."