THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH FLIN FLON POT CROP

Thank you for Jim McNulty's entertaining and generally insightful
column, "Ottawa Liberals show the rot of power."

I was, however, disappointed that McNulty bought Health Minister Anne
McLellan's line that Health Canada's first medicinal cannabis crop
"can't be dispensed because the seeds used came from 185 different
strains."

The U.S. National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), which predictably
declined to provide Health Canada with seeds, has been providing a
handful of patients with standardized cannabis cigarettes for decades.

How does NIDA do it? They essentially throw a myriad of low-quality
Mexican strains, stems and seeds included, into a blender. Why it
hasn't occurred to either NIDA or Health Canada to further refine
such homogenized cannabis into hashish and/or tinctures of known
potency and purity, as was the practise before cannabis was
prohibited, is anyone's guess.

The bottom line is that McLellan is manufacturing excuses, not
seeking expert advice or finding solutions in good faith.

Unless the cannabis we all paid for is contaminated with heavy metals
or radon from the abandoned mine in which it was grown, there is
nothing wrong with it.

Matthew M. Elrod,

Victoria