POT MAY BE UPROOTED

Feds' Potent Crop Difficult To Grow

A strain of government-certified marijuana is extremely potent but difficult
to grow and may eventually be abandoned as too much trouble, officials say.

The flowering tops or buds of the strain, grown for Health Canada in a
vacant mine section in Flin Flon, Man., contain between 20% and 25% THC, the
most active ingredient of marijuana, lab results show.

American tests on marijuana seized by U.S. police forces suggest ordinary
street dope averages about 5% THC, with sinsemilla -- considered the
champagne of weed -- averaging about 10%.

But the highly potent Flin Flon strain -- one of two official strains that
together produced a crop of 244 kg last fall -- is anemic and tough to grow
successfully.

"We don't want high-maintenance plants," said Cindy Cripps-Prawak, chief of
Ottawa's medical marijuana program. "It's still unclear to me whether or not
that is going to be the strain we're going to continue with."

The second strain is producing a respectable THC content as well, between
13% and 18% in its buds. Those levels are more in line with the needs of
clinical trials, said Cripps-Prawak.

"By and large, the researchers have told us they're interested more in the
lower-range plants, the lower-range THC content" of about 15% or less, she
said.

Health Canada has said it will not make any of its marijuana available
directly to needy patients because it first wants to see scientific proof
about whether the drug is effective.

Instead, patients approved by Health Canada must either grow their own
marijuana or have someone else grow it for them.

If Health Canada agrees to abandon its high-potency strain, it will be
another setback in a problem-plagued project to grow standardized Canadian
marijuana for medical trials that will determine whether the drug offers any
benefits -- such as pain relief -- to the chronically ill.

FAST FACTS

* Health Canada wants a standardized supply of marijuana for medical
trials.

* In December 2000, Prairie Plant Systems Inc. of Saskatoon awarded a
five-year, $5.75-million contract to grow marijuana for Health Canada in an
abandoned mine section in Flin Flon, Man.

* First crop of 74 kg delivered in December 2001 had 185 varieties, with
broad range of quality.

* Second crop of 244 kg delivered in December 2002. Lab tests show one
strain contains 20% to 25% THC, while the other has 13% to 18%.

* Dried crop at Flin Flon to be bagged in 30-gram foil packs and labelled
as necessary. No plans at present to produce rolled marijuana cigarettes.