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| Cannabis Capsules Cause Stir |
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Posted by FoM on March 29, 2002 at 10:49:26 PT By Mary Ellen MacIntyre, Staff Reporter Source: Halifax Herald 
Middle Sackville - Med Marijuana Inc.'s owners might have been spared a lot of grief if they'd sold their edible oil supplements under another name. Although the cannabis sativa oil gel caps, or hemp oil supplement, are a legal health-food supplement, Michael Patriquen and Melanie Stephen of Middle Sackville chose to keep the word marijuana in the company name. Health Canada says the company is under investigation about health claims suggesting, among other things, the supplement may thin the blood, which may prevent blood clots, heart attacks and stroke. The department is also looking into whether the supplement is a banned substance under the Controlled Substances Act. "We fall into full compliance with the industrial hemp legislation of 1998 and there's nothing in the regulations that says we must call it hemp," said Mr. Patriquen. The law defines "industrial hemp" as the plants and plant parts of cannabis that don't contain more than 0.3 per cent of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, a psychoactive substance. Mr. Patriquen said the company has all the Health Canada documents needed to make the supplement. He said some distributors are concerned about the investigation and others have stopped selling the product. He believes Ottawa is fully aware the product is legal. "Before we did anything we had it thoroughly checked out. . . . This oil is taken from federally certified seed and Health Canada licensed (a southern Ontario farmer) to grow the seed and inspectors gave him a certificate of analysis. "Our attorney sent the paperwork on to Health Canada and everything's got their stamp on it." A Health Canada spokesman said Thursday if the paperwork is all in order, an investigation into the product should conclude the company isn't violating the Controlled Substances Act. Asked why he didn't go the easy route and leave marijuana out of his company's name, Mr. Patriquen said simply: "I'm stubborn." "In 1976 I was enrolled in pre-law and got busted for a joint. "I got a $300 fine and my dreams of law school were gone and the injustice of that has stayed with me." Mr. Patriquen and his wife, Ms. Stephen, are members of the Marijuana Party of Canada and support the legalization of marijuana. "Pot doesn't violate society. . . . Nobody is hurt by it. . . . It's a benign, natural and safe product," said Ms. Stephen. Last week, Mr. Patriquen pleaded guilty in Nova Scotia Supreme Court to conspiracy to possess marijuana in Nova Scotia and conspiracy to traffic in the drug here and in Newfoundland. Dating to 1999 and 2000, the charges aren't related to their company. Mr. Patriquen will be sentenced in August. Ironically, Mr. Patriquen is allowed to grow marijuana in his home for medical purposes. A severe neck injury earned him a Health Canada exemption from prosecution. "I get charged for something that I'm now legally allowed to grow. . . . It makes you wonder," he said. Mr. Patriquen and Ms. Stephen say response to their product has been positive and they'll continue to market it as a food supplement. Source: Halifax Herald (CN NS) Related Articles & Web Sites: Med Marijuana Inc. Marijuana Party of Canada Ottawa Has Seed of Doubt About Supplement Pot Defendant Disables Web Site They're High On Pot Plan Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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Comment #5 posted by kaptinemo on April 01, 2002 at 05:19:43 PT:
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| I got a feeling I'll need them after this... Egos. I got one. So do you. I keep mine on a tight leash, have taught it some manners, and made sure it makes no messes at friend's homes. But egos sunk the cannabis re-legalization movement in the 1970's. Certain people who are still around, who are some people's heroes - but not mine - blew it all for us back then. Because of personal problems and an inability to accept differing points of view on how to proceed, they did terrible damage to us...at a time when we almost had won...the...prize.. So a half-baked, histrionic, factually-challenged 'parents movement' was able to come up from behind and clobber us. We simply cannot afford these flaming, selfish, "screw you, I'll do what I want!" egos! Not anymore. Not this time. Far too much is at stake in this besides 'just' cannabis prohibition; the entire WoSD apparatus is wholly involved in social oppression. Freeing the weed means a huge chunk of our freedoms and our tax dollars are returned - badly mauled, but repairable. It's a much, much bigger game than 'just' the ability of sick people to be left in peace to medicate with what they need. This article points out the kind of mindset that the antis use to defeat us. Some of us are our own worst enemies. Bad enough we have to fight antis in the trenches every single day; we don't need a 'fifth column' of purported 'supporters' stabbing us in the back with their antics. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by CorvallisEric on March 30, 2002 at 04:08:06 PT |
| His website is like many others which make outlandish health and medical claims by allusion. And he's going to sell it thru "licensed dealers" and "sub-dealers", thereby making it harder to track fraudulent claims since sales contact will be verbal. And he's just totally in love with the word "marijuana". Need I say more? [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #3 posted by herbdoc215 on March 30, 2002 at 01:31:14 PT:
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| We have been over this ground before with " Medical Marijuana" and personally I am amazed this snakeoil is getting this much press. Either Micheal owns the dang paper or the cops want to keep holding this " activist " up for rest of public to see because he so implies the stereotypes they so love to hate, it seems 'he' has become the very essence of the word 'marijuana' here in Canada- a conveinent boogy-man to scare kids and middle class voters with. With all the confusion surrounding medical cannabis in Canada right now the last thing we need is somebodies Grandma going into Eckerds and buying oil pills containing less THC (or any cannabinoids for that matter) than the screen your reading this on and thinking this will help anything other than this companies bottom line is criminal in itself. Want to buy some homemade antibiotics I scraped off of a orange in my frig? What's the difference? Even supposing it's harmless, go into the burn unit at any hospital and replace the morphine with salt water and see what you get? I still want to know how he get's as much pr as he get's. Hell it's easier than telling about Flin Flon sitting on enough pot to relieve many people's misery to appease Big Brother in Peoples Republic of AmeriKa, or DEA undercover pigs raiding folks trying to actually trying to get medicine to the sick of Canada, etc. The whole truth is all that will set us free and we must shove it down their throats. Peace, Steve Tuck [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by Morgan on March 29, 2002 at 13:12:40 PT |
| When cannabis prohibition started in earnest back in the 30's, the name 'marijuana', (a mexican slang term for cannabis), was used by the media to scare the bejeebus out of the unknowing white populace and herded them into backing laws outlawing marijuana, hemp, cannabis sativa, ditchweed, etc. They effectively created an illusion by changing labels. Everyone knew what hemp was, and wouldn't have backed laws outlawing it... if they knew the relationship. Here we are now...sixty-five years later, still being fooled and seperated by labels. So it seems to me Kap, that this guy is just trying to merge the words back.. and saying that it's all the same plant, with many benefits. He may be jumping the gun in using the word marijuana (conjuring up all the negatives associated with that word ), but I appreciate his cajones. The DEA will be stupid no matter what they know. Their very livlihood depends upon stupid thoughts and actions. One of the things that gets my blood boiling, is all the splinter groups and the bickering between them that concern this one plant. Medical marijuana, industrial hemp, recreational pot... If they all ever got together and focused on a similar goal...legalization... watch out. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on March 29, 2002 at 11:06:34 PT:
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| I'm sorry, but this time I won't rush to the rhetorical support of a fellow stoner. He deliberately misrepresented hemp oil as being 'marijuana'. Which (spitting the word in disgust)stupidly plays into the hands of the antis, who are barely aware of the difference...if they are aware at all. Waxing lyrical bout the benefits of hemp oil is something I'm guilty of, myself. I took the stuff in capsule form every day for months on end and noticed some very beneficial results...such as lowered cholesterol. Now, thanks to the DEA's damnable pig(pun definitely intended)headedness in trying to kill the hemp industry, my LDL's are back up to dangerous levels. My doc gave me a scrip for Lipitor...which can do some major damage on your liver. Having already risked that much-needed organ courtesy of other scrips, I am understandably leery of popping a pill that may someday cause me to have to wait in line for a liver transplant. Presuming, off course, I lasted long enough. But I NEVER made any claims I couldn't prove scientifically. Stick to the facts...and call it what it is. Lying is what antis do. With friends like that, we have no need of opponents. [ Post Comment ] |
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