FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO SELL MARIJUANA

OTTAWA -(CP)- The federal government will sell marijuana to those authorized
to use it for medicinal purposes.

Seeds will be sold to authorized people who want to grow their own
marijuana, Health Canada spokeswoman Cindy Cripps-Prawak said Wednesday.
Dried marijuana will be available for those too ill to grow their own.

Cripps-Prawak stressed the policy is an interim measure, and the government
is not approving pot as a legal drug.

The announcement came on the day an Ontario court judge set as a deadline
for the federal government to come up with regulations for distributing
medical marijuana.

The judge set the July 9 deadline, saying it's unfair that medicinal users
must turn to illegal means to obtain their marijuana even though they are
authorized to use it for their health.

Ottawa will appeal the judge's ruling, and Cripps-Prawak said it's expected
to be heard at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, a packet of 30 seeds from the federal government will cost $20
and dried pot will cost $5 a gram. According to the RCMP, the street price
of the drug varies from $10 to $25 a gram, Cripps-Prawak said.

"We did not try to be competitive with the black market," she said. "What we
did try to do is establish a price which is reasonable, based on costs
associated with the production and implementation of the program."

The marijuana will come from an underground lab in Flin Flon, Man., where
the government is growing the plant for research into its medicinal use.