HIGH MARKUP ON FEDS' MEDICINAL POT

And It's Not Even Good Stuff, Prospect Bay Man Says

The federal government charges patients 15 times more for certified
medical marijuana than it pays to buy the weed in bulk from its
official supplier, newly released documents show.

Critics say it's unconscionable to charge that high a markup to some
of the country's sickest citizens, who have little income and are
often cut off from their medical marijuana supply when they can't pay
their government dope bills.

Records obtained under the Access to Information Act show that Health
Canada pays $328.75 for each kilogram of bulk medical marijuana
produced by Prairie Plant Systems Inc.

The company has a $10.3-million contract with Health Canada, which
expires at the end of September, to grow standardized medical
marijuana in an abandoned mine shaft in Flin Flon, Man.

Health Canada, in turn, sells the marijuana to a small group of
authorized users for $150 - plus GST - for each 30-gram bag of
ground-up flowering tops, with a strength of up to 14 per cent THC,
the main active ingredient. That works out to $5,000 for each
kilogram, or a markup of more than 1,500 per cent.

Street prices for marijuana are about $10 a gram for small quantities,
or about twice Health Canada's price, though bulk street purchases
with few middlemen can match or better the government price.
Compassion clubs charge as low as $5 a gram, the same price as
government dope.

Because medical marijuana is not a recognized drug, with its own drug
identification number, insurance companies and government drug
programs do not reimburse patients for costs, as they do for other
pain medications.

Many patients say they are unhappy with the quality of the Prairie
Plant System product.

"It's garbage," said Tom MacMullen, 43, of Prospect Bay, who uses
marijuana for leg and back pain. "It's just so awful-tasting."

MacMullen has twice been cut off from his government supply, and
currently owes $517 in arrears. With a disability pension of $653 a
month and two children, he has few resources to buy dope, and now
relies on the charity of friends.

Bouzanis said Health Canada is tightening its rules beginning May 1,
so that those who are 30 days or more in arrears can receive one more
shipment before they are cut off. Previously, patients were given a
180-day grace period.