JOINT OPERATIONS FLOURISHING

With Its Pot Supply Stalled, Ottawa Allows Home Production Of Medicinal
Marijuana

VANCOUVER -- The pungent smell of marijuana seeps out the door of the
low-rent apartment in Vancouver's east side, a few steps off Commercial
Drive, the unofficial main street of the city's hip alternative-culture crowd.

In a bedroom, several marijuana plants are flourishing under huge
floodlights. Cuttings from marijuana plants are on a counter, sitting in
water and starting to sprout roots. A plastic bag with fresh marijuana is
on the table. Dozens of marijuana cigarette butts fill an ashtray in the
living room.

The setup is typical of the numerous illegal marijuana operations that
police shut down across Canada. But this crop is legal.

The 39-year-old man with AIDS who lives in this apartment is among the
first Canadians federally licensed to grow marijuana for medical use.

Earlier this month, bureaucrats in Ottawa said they did not know when
marijuana grown in a Manitoba mine would be available to those licensed to
obtain it under the government's much-touted medicinal-marijuana program.

But authorized marijuana users do not have to depend on government for
their grass, the Vancouver man said yesterday. He asked that only his first
name, Lance, be used in order to protect his safety.

Marijuana is available now for those licensed to grow their own crop, he
said. "The public needs to know these gardens can exist for legitimate
legal reasons," he said in an interview. "Certain attitudes [critical of
marijuana use for medical reasons] have to change."

Canada's medicinal-marijuana program, which is believed to be unique in the
world, has been controversial.

Activists who push for more open access to marijuana say the program points
the way to a new approach to the drug that could meet the needs of many
Canadians and wipe out the illegal marijuana trade, estimated to be worth
more than $3-billion in B.C. alone.

The Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Medical Protective
Association oppose the program and have told doctors not to sign requests
for federal approval to possess cannabis.

Under rules introduced last summer, people expected to die within 12 months
or those with severe illnesses can possess the drug. They can also grow it
or have someone grow it for them.

More than 250 kilograms of marijuana has been harvested by a
Saskatoon-based company that the federal government has commissioned to
grow the plants in a former copper mine near Flin Flon, 650 kilometres
northwest of Winnipeg. But distribution has been delayed indefinitely until
officials figure out whether the drug should be treated in the same fashion
as any pharmaceutical.

Licences have been issued to 137 people to grow marijuana for their
personal use, and 10 people have been authorized to designate another
person to grow it for them, Health Canada spokesman Andrew Swift said from
Ottawa.