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| Canada's Med-Pot, Hot or Not? |
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Posted by CN Staff on May 13, 2002 at 15:22:34 PT By Reverend Damuzi Source: Cannabis Culture 
Prairie Plant Systems – the Canadian government's official pot-grower – has about 250 kilos of crystally bud packing their shelves. Brent Zettl, the company's co-founder, says that the crop came out even better than he had hoped."It is not easy to build a 12,000 square foot chamber deep in a mine, get it security cleared, and then produce a crop that meets the contract obligations in stellar quality within 12 months," Zettl told Cannabis Culture. Originally, Prairie Plant only intended to produce cannabis for clinical research, but that plan changed when their specialized growing techniques produced way more than the clinical trials could use, partly because the number of approved clinical trials was smaller than expected. As pot from Prairie Plant gets ready to hit the market, it has been besieged by a wide range of critics, including patients, compassion clubs and competitors. "One thing it does is set the expectation pretty low, which gives us an opportunity to excel," said Zettl. "We have been criticized for not knowing what we are doing with this particular plant, despite the fact that we have a corporate resume that looks at well over 3,000 different species of plants. We've had to figure out way harder things with way less information going in. We always emphasize quality. We want to make the best that can possibly be made." Indeed, Prairie Plant's product is testing at higher than the 5-6% maximum THC levels set out by the government under the new Medical Marijuana Access Regulations. "Preliminary test results have shown that the majority of the plants are more than double the percentage of THC," Zettl enthused. "The 10-12% range is common. Of course, that is still undergoing verification at this time, and it does go beyond the scope of the contract. But there are provisions within that contract that allow Health Canada to receive higher percentage material." Some critics have claimed that potentially dangerous trace elements from the mines would find their way into Prairie Plant's pot. Zettl, who was raised in a family of organic gardeners, assured Cannabis Culture that his pot is totally clean. "I guess the question I'd ask," said Zettl, "is what are they basing their criticisms on? No one has any samples of our stuff. It sounds more like a smear campaign. These allegations are completely unfounded." Zettl then described in detail the meticulous methods used by Prairie Plant to ensure an utterly clean product. "The final thing is that all the material, prior to being distributed, will be tested for all heavy metals. We will do a full profile on the gas chromatograph before sending it out." Zettl says he has no doubts that the pot will speak for itself. "Criticisms that we are producing substandard stuff will be revealed as quite unsubstantiated once the exemptees receive Prairie Plant-produced material from Health Canada," he said. Although Zettl claimed the pot will reach patients by May, Health Canada has absolutely no idea how. "It has not been decided yet how the cannabis will be distributed," Health Canada spokesperson Andrew Swift told Cannabis Culture. "We are presently evaluating the marijuana to ensure the consistency, potency and a safe and homogeneous supply. We will decide in the coming months how that marijuana will be distributed. There are no details yet on how that will be accomplished, what the options are, or what ones are even being looked at." Next issue: just how does Prairie Plant grow those buds? • Prairie Plant: tel 306-975-1207; email: pps@prairieplant.com -- web: http://www.prairieplant.com Note: Official med-pot producer claims his buds are dank and pure, but patients have yet to get them. Source: Cannabis Culture Related Articles & Web Site: Canadian Links B.C. Pot Growers Blast $6 Million Waste Carney Pushes B.C. Bud for Official Pot Crop Medical Marijuana is Bad Weed Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #2 posted by FoM on May 13, 2002 at 23:33:51 PT |
| It's good to see you and read you will be a free man soon.
The news is so intense. We have the IDEAs conference in Canada. They keep kicking around good drug policy issues in the UK. Medical Cannabis is making headlines. Now Dionne Warchick gets arrested and it was said in an article that she uses marijuana medicinally for her eyes. They are getting close to changing the laws on marijuana in Canada. What an interesting time in drug policy issues. Thanks for the compliment too. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by military officer guy on May 13, 2002 at 20:25:29 PT |
| check this out, not only has the federal gov't of Canada legaized the use of marijuanna for medicinal purposes, but it also is supplying it to needing patience, but unfortunately they take the typical gov't last step, they try to 100% guarentee that NO one could ever possibly die from anything related to something they produce...and we all know what this does...regulations that make people unable to get the medicine they choose to use...they try to protect us too much, when what they really need to do is give the freak dope to the patients that want it, they know good enough that it ain't going to kill anyone, and i trust the guy that grew it...i take one puff, and we ALL know if it's worth smoking it again or not...just give it to the people that need it, and stop trying to play gov't...dont' get me wrong, i don't want to sound like i'm totally getting down on canada's drug policy, because they are one of very few "free" countries that have a rational policy towards drugs, and it's only going to get better...case in point, they also made it legal for you to grow your own, just in case you thought the "free" stuff from gov'ment wasn't all that it was cracked up to be...
there is no doubt in my mind that we will win this war...
in fact i am soon to be formerlly known as the military officer guy, and luvn ever freaking FREE minute of it...i will joint the ranks of many very courages men and women of the UNarmed services...and damn proud to serve...
dan b, congrats again for your new addition...there are a lot of people on this list that are saving lives every single day, making life worth living...you might not even realize it, but you are...
FoM as always luv ya...
we will win this war...
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