FEDS' MEDICINAL-POT DEBACLE WAS PREDICTABLE

The latest excuse from our bumbling bureaucrats concerning the inadequate
seeds the government has used in its medicinal-marijuana program (Gazette,
May 8, "Feds' pot is below par") is just one more to add to the long list
of what appear to be stalling tactics by a government that is still
seething that the courts forced it to create a medical-marijuana program
against its wishes. (Although it's not as if there is no precedent for such
a move: the medicare system in the Netherlands now includes a
medical-marijuana program.)

Asking the Taliban-like drug-war zealots of the American Drug Enforcement
Agency for marijuana seeds is akin to asking Dracula to part with some
blood; everybody knew the answer would be "no" beforehand. The government
likely knew as well but thought it would provide a wonderful excuse.

Hemp-Quebec Seeds and Marc Emery Seeds are just two of the legitimate
tax-paying Canadian seed companies that carry about 500 different
high-quality seeds from all over the world. Yet the government refused even
to consider involving them in its growing operation.

Canada could have also approached countries like Britain, Italy and Spain,
where universities and pharmaceutical companies are carrying out extensive
marijuana research. The most obvious source would have been Holland, which
has leading expertise in marijuana genetics and hundreds of seed banks.
Instead, the government asked the rabid U.S. anti-drug agency.

When that failed, it came up with the brilliant plan to use unknown strains
of seeds that had been confiscated by police, which is equivalent to
putting your hand in the cabinet with your eyes closed. Many people warned
of the problems this would cause, as there are over 1,000 different
marijuana strains.

We have also learned that the most important prerequisite to be allowed to
grow marijuana for the government was to have no prior experience in
growing marijuana. Many will see this as an obvious metaphor: the way to
get a government contract is to be totally unqualified.

Either this whole seed debacle is the result of incompetence of a level
rarely seen before, or our government has played the country beautifully.
Either way, Canadians, or at least the 90-per-cent majority that supports
medical marijuana, should be outraged.

Lyle Howard Seave
Saint-Felicien, QC