PROBLEMS WITH OTTAWA'S POT CROP

Bad News For Medical Users, But Decriminalization Gets Closer All The Time

PRAIRIE Plant Systems Inc., a Saskatoon company, has grown more than 250
kilograms of unharvested marijuana since it got a $5.7-million contract
with Health Canada. The pot is for research and for pain relief for those
with incurable multiple sclerosis, cancer, severe arthritis and epilepsy,
and anyone in pain with less than a year to live. However, an indefinite
government delay now means patients who want the drug must supply it
themselves or name someone else to grow it for them.

Prairie Plant's first harvest of government marijuana had been scheduled
for delivery in January. But last month it was disclosed that distribution
of the plants, under cultivation in an abandoned copper mine near Flin
Flon, 400 miles northwest of Winnipeg, has been delayed.

Federal Health Minister Anne McLellan admitted May 7 that the government's
pot is substandard. The Flin Flon crop of 2,000 plants contains a rainbow
of pot varieties, 185 in all, using seeds from police busts. The U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency uses a standardized seed, but Ms. McLellan said U.S.
authorities would not share, so Canada was left with crops of various
potency and quality. It must now test seeds and create a standardized
variety for subsequent crops.

A few hundred Canadians are not waiting. Since July 2001, when the
government passed new legislation, 255 ill Canadians have been licensed to
possess the plant. As of May 3, 164 people had obtained licences to produce
the plant, and 11 individuals were authorized to grow the plants for
others. An additional 658 Canadians were granted permission to use
marijuana for medicinal purposes and 501 of those users remain active.

Despite appearances, none of this means marijuana has actually been
approved as a therapeutic substance by the federal government. Following a
government report released May 1, however, debate on decriminalizing
cannabis entirely is expected to reach an all-time high. After 14 months of
study and consideration, Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, chairman of the
Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, told reporters marijuana is used
by about 30% of people aged 15 to 24. Still, contrary to common
assumptions, he concluded that it is not a "gateway drug" leading to
cocaine, heroine and other hard drug use. Indeed, Mr. Nolin noted it might
be appropriate to treat marijuana "more like alcohol or tobacco."

Six public hearings will be held between now and August, and Canadians in
five cities will be asked whether marijuana should be made legal before the
committee prepares a final report. Meanwhile, although a large amount of
anecdotal evidence and personal stories extol the virtues of marijuana,
almost no studies exist on its medicinal properties, if any.

One University of California-San Francisco study, in preliminary stages and
still ongoing, found that patients who smoked marijuana gained
significantly more weight than those receiving a placebo, and had slightly
lower viral levels. This could offer significant benefit to those patients
using marijuana for chronic (catabolic) wasting, which includes nausea,
vomiting, lack of appetite and severe weight loss.

An Institute of Medicine study commissioned by the White House also found
that cannabinoid drugs such as marijuana reduce anxiety, stimulate
appetite, reduce nausea, and offer pain relief, and suggested pot was
suitable for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and HIV wasting.
Animal studies have also found cannabis products a mild to moderate
analgesic, with more benefits than opiates, which can be inconsistent for
chronic pain, and result in nausea and sedation.

One small study, with only three human subjects, found that marijuana
smoking ended migraine headache attacks. Researchers theorized marijuana
suppresses pain by feeding the periaqueductral gray (PAG) region of the
brain, part of the neural system with an abundance of existing cannabinoid
receptors, and the part of the brain where migraines are believed to
originate. Indeed, marijuana was a popular treatment for headache from 1874
to 1942. Then it was criminalized, and other drugs took its place.

Still, some North Americans swear by pot. Last year, AIDS activist and
freelance writer Phillip Alden of San Francisco told reporters he suffers
constant nausea on anti-HIV medication, and has chronic wasting syndrome. A
lungful of pot before dinner makes him hungry. He must eat enormous
quantities of food to maintain his weight. "I start cooking dinner and take
a couple hits off my pipe. Then I eat dinner, dessert, snacks, and keep
eating right up until bedtime."