FLIN FLON POT USELESS FOR TESTING: MCLELLAN

2nd Batch Ready, Better Results Expected

OTTAWA -- The first batch of marijuana grown by a private company under a
Health Canada contract was useless for clinical trials and had to be
burned, Health Minister Anne McLellan told Montreal's La Presse in an
interview published yesterday. Prairie Plant Systems Inc. received a
five-year, $5-million federal contract to grow marijuana in an abandoned
copper mine in Flin Flon, but McLellan said their first batch was not uniform.

Prairie Plant Systems was unable to receive a supply of standardized
marijuana seeds from the United States, McLellan said, so the company
turned to the RCMP, which supplied seeds that were seized in various raids.

"So there definitely wasn't any standardization of the product," McLellan
told La Presse. "From the first harvest it was very clear -- my people did
the tests here -- that there were all sorts of marijuana. Plants from
different stocks with rates of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, that
varied from plant to plant. All of it had to be burned."

Scientists have since been able to produce standardized seeds that have led
to a second, more uniform harvest in Flin Flon which will be used for testing.

"That harvest is in the process of being checked," McLellan said. "It will
soon be available for clinical trials." McLellan denied the perception that
she does not favour the use of marijuana for medicinal uses. But she said
there is still no scientific proof of these claims.

"In fact, we don't know enough," she said. "I asked my ministry to examine
all of the research.

"... The problem is that if you want a doctor to prescribe you some pot, he
would be very reticent to do so without serious medical and scientific
facts that would allow him to make a clear decision," she said.

"If they prescribe this product without knowing if there are serious
side-effects, without knowing how pot interacts with other substances or
other chemical cocktails, they risk facing lawsuits," McLellan said.