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| B.C. Group Launches How To Web Site on Growing MMJ |
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Posted by FoM on April 26, 2002 at 20:57:30 PT By Terri Theodore, Canadian Press Source: Canadian Press 
Pot users with black thumbs who need help growing medical marijuana will soon be able to surf some gardening tips from a new Web site being operated by a B.C. group. The Merlin Project is launching an Internet broadcasting site the operator says is aimed at those who have been issued Health Canada permits to grow their own marijuana for medical use. The site will give advice on everything from how to get a Health Canada licence for pot use to the right lighting, dirt and fertilizer to use on pot plants. The project's co-ordinator, Michael Maniotis, said during a tour of a grow site Friday the Web site is a public service. "You'll be able to access lessons on the Internet on how to grow cannabis and that's irrelevant if they're licensed or not," said Maniotis, an artist who said that before the 10 a.m. news conference, he had "medicated three times since I got up this morning." Maniotis faces charges after police shut down a marijuana tea house that he opened earlier this year. The Web site starts broadcasting May 4 from the home of a licensed marijuana user who is growing his own pot. The RCMP aren't impressed. But Staff Sgt. Chuck Doucette said the Web site falls into a legal grey area. "We have to realize that marijuana is a very harmful substance and basically, this person is promoting the use of a harmful substance," he said. "If it was just for medical purposes and if it was just for people who legitimately had a licence to do it, it wouldn't necessarily be an issue. But he's got it out there for any young person that doesn't know any better and that's a problem." The media were taken on a tour Friday of the residence where the Web site will be broadcast will originate. Lance, who declined to give his last name, said he's legally entitled to grow 25 plants. "You'd think that was a lot, but really, plants are subject to disease and insects," said Lance, who smokes marijuana to ease the pain he suffers from HIV and hepatitis B and C. "I just finished nine plants. I had a spider mite infestation. So I wound up with three ounces of useable pot." He used that in a month. On some days when the pain is very bad, he said he smokes up to 30 joints a day. "It eliminates the nausea, gives me an appetite. I wouldn't be as healthy as I am today if I didn't have cannabis," he said, adding it's the only pain reliever he uses. Under Health Canada's medical marijuana regulations, people who are licensed to use pot to relieve pain may grow it themselves or they may get a licence designating someone else to grow it for them. But the grower also needs a licence and may only grow enough for one user, said Andrew Swift, a spokesman for the department. However, Maniotis said he hopes the Web site prompts the formation of a network of licensed users who will be able to compare notes in their growing efforts. Any excess they grow would be donated to the B.C. Cancer Society, he said. Maniotis said his group has already been in touch with doctors there, although a spokeswoman with the society said she hadn't heard of the plan. Linda DuBick, director of programs, said the society runs three lodges for patients who undergo treatment. "Our nursing staff may help administer medication, but certainly not smoking pot," she said. "We just wouldn't go there." Complete Title: B.C. Group Launches How-To Web Site on Growing Medical Marijuana The Merlin Project Canadian Links CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #4 posted by FoM on April 27, 2002 at 23:11:02 PT |
| Rainbow I think the site doesn't launch until May 4th. Check out the pictures! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by Rainbow on April 27, 2002 at 17:46:33 PT |
| The link to the merlin project does not work or the DEA(th) has hacked it.
Tom [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by Jose Melendez on April 27, 2002 at 05:35:58 PT |
| We have to realize that marijuana is a very harmful substance and basically, this person is promoting the use of a harmful substance," he said. And the fact that no one has ever died from an overdose, there are not hundreds of thousands of lung cancer patients, most people eventually quit using and do not go on to other drugs, this is irrelevant? Oh, I'm sorry I forgot: it is an illogical argument. Right, onion-eater? [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on April 26, 2002 at 23:19:48 PT |
| But Staff Sgt. Chuck Doucette said the Web site falls into a legal grey area. We have to realize that marijuana is a very harmful substance and basically, this person is promoting the use of a harmful substance," he said. "If it was just for medical purposes and if it was just for people who legitimately had a licence to do it, it wouldn't necessarily be an issue. But he's got it out there for any young person that doesn't know any better and that's a problem." Why is a law enforcement officer being asked to express a political opinion like this in public? Their position in society is like that of the military -- a force meant to protect the rule of law necessary for a democracy, not not a force meant to rule the country or to aspire to rule the country or tell people how to live or how to vote. The job of the police is not to decide who is or is not promoting a harmful substance and it is not their job to decide what is or is not a harmful substance. Their job is to enforce the law, period. They are given a set of laws to enforce, and they should do just that, and stop trying to enlarge their job into something else that involves dictating to people what is or is not harmful. The news media seem fairly oblivious to these dictinctions. What are journalists studying in college these days? Not civics, not history and not political science, it would appear. I think people have become so comfortably ignorant of how the world is working because of the changes wrought by the WOD that they just don't understand the profound alterations occurring in fundamental categories like law enforcement. [ Post Comment ] |
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