FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SELLING MEDICAL MARIJUANA 'FOR CRIMINAL STREET PRICES'

OTTAWA - 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, 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 currently 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.

"It's impossible for a person on disability," said Ron Lawrence, 38, a
burn victim in Windsor, Ont., who needs medical marijuana to control
severe pain. "The sickest people are the ones that need it the most .
. . they're the ones who don't work."

Adds Scott McCluskey, 48, in Westbank, B.C., who suffers spinal-cord
pain that is eased by marijuana: "They're selling it for criminal
street prices. I don't think anybody, especially seriously ill people
. . . should have to pay this type of money for medicine."

Health Canada has become a reluctant marijuana supplier, forced into
the role by a series of court decisions that have accepted scientific
research indicating cannabis can relieve pain when other medications
fail. The courts have also said patients should not be forced into the
black market to purchase their medicine.

Currently, 1,742 patients are authorized by Health Canada to possess
dried marijuana as a medication. Of these, 1,040 are licensed to grow
their own, and another 167 people are licensed to grow marijuana for
the exclusive use of licensed patients.

But patients can also order marijuana through Health Canada's official
supplier, Prairie Plant Systems, which typically delivers the product
by Purolater courier.

Currently, 149 patients are officially in arrears - almost a third of
the 514 patients who order government-certified dope. Many have been
cut off from their supplies, though Health Canada was not able to
indicate the number.

"At a time when medical cannabis users all too often have to choose
between buying groceries and their medicine, it is unconscionable that
Health Canada . . . should be marking up this product 1,500 per cent,"
said Philippe Lucas of Victoria-based Canadians for Safe Access, which
promotes ready access to medical marijuana.