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| Analysis: Canada Seeks Standardized Hash |
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Posted by CN Staff on May 14, 2002 at 07:57:06 PT By Ralph Joseph Source: United Press International 
Early this year, a secretive farm in Flin Flon, Manitoba, harvested its first officially-approved crop of marijuana, fulfilling a contract with the federal government. That, however, was as far as it got.The company that runs the farm, Prairie Plant Systems Inc., did not process or package the hashish. Canadian researchers, or those who had hoped to obtain the substance for medicinal purposes, may still have a long wait ahead. The problem, says Andrew Swift of Health Canada, was that the crop was not raised from standardized seeds. All of the countries to which Canada turned for the seeds, including the United States, turned down their request. Swift doesn't know why the United States said no. But the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, the other countries to which Canada turned, said "they did not at the time have a licit supply for us, or were not prepared to issue an export order." Swift told United Press International that either the Europeans "didn't have the resources that they could spare or sell, or were not prepared to export it." As for the Americans, Canada actually made two requests to the U.S. National Institute for Drug Abuse. "One was for seeds in order to grow marijuana at Prairie Plant Systems, and the other was for dried marijuana to be used directly for clinical trials," which the federal government has funded at McGill University. The negotiations with NIDA for the dried marijuana "are still ongoing," Swift said. When Canada failed to get a supply of standardized seeds from NIDA or the three European countries, it turned to its own law enforcement agencies for seeds seized from illicit growers. In fact, some of the Canadian seeds, especially those from British Columbia, are known to be of very high potency, and traffickers are believed to make about $3.4 billion in profits a year selling the stuff in the underground U.S. market. However, potency was not the issue. Health Canada needed marijuana of standard potency. "If you're using it for research, it has to be of standard strength," Swift said. That was why the Flin Flon farm was unable to process the first crop or package it for use in clinical trials. "The marijuana that was grown, because of the varying different seeds, was of varying strength. ... We need a source of supply of standard strength." A spokesperson at NIDA's offices in Bethesda, Md., did not respond to questions from UPI as to why the institute had turned down Canada's request. American activist Krissy Oechslin, however, says the United States has been producing the stuff at a Mississippi farm for several years, but NIDA has always been reticent about the whole business. Oechslin, a spokesperson for the advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project in Washington D.C., said the hashish produced at the Mississippi farm is "grown for research purposes," and scientists currently carrying out studies at the University of California at San Diego are receiving marijuana from the farm. Once Health Canada begins receiving a supply of standardized marijuana, Swift said, it should begin providing the stuff to Dr. Marc Ware, the researcher at McGill University, who is set to carry out a federally funded study to determine what therapeutic effects the substance has, if any. Oechslin says some research already exists showing that "it does have definite benefits on certain conditions." For instance, in 1999, the Institute of Medicine in the United States "released a report saying that it definitely helps with nausea, with relieving glaucoma and various other things," she said. "There's no denying that it absolutely does have medicinal benefits for various conditions." The Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, at the University of California, says in its Web site that it has received funding for research that "will focus on the potential medicinal benefits for diseases and conditions" specified by the 1999 report. These included "severe appetite suppression, weight loss, and cachexia, which is severe loss of tissue and muscle, due to HIV infection and other medical conditions," as well as "chronic pain, particularly neuropathic pain, severe nausea and vomiting associated with cancer and its treatment," as well as "severe muscle spasticity caused by diseases such as multiple sclerosis." The CMCR study began as recently as November 2001. If NIDA comes through with a supply of dried marijuana, or the Flin Flon farm is able to come up with a supply of marijuana of standardized potency, the study at McGill could be running almost parallel with that at the University of California. Meanwhile, after losing a long court battle with Toronto resident Terry Parker, who successfully argued that he needed marijuana to get relief from epilepsy seizures, Ottawa amended its Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to allow people to possess or grow marijuana themselves, if they need it for medicinal purposes. The amended regulations came into effect on July 30, 2001, and between then and May 3 this year "we have granted 255 authorizations to possess" marijuana, Swift said. Another 164 people received personal production licenses, while 11 designated personal licenses were also issued, all on compassionate grounds. A "designated personal license," he explains, is granted when a person is disabled, or has other problems producing marijuana himself or herself and must designate another person to produce it. Those applying for licenses to possess or grow marijuana for their own use need to obtain a certificate from a physician saying that they do indeed suffer severe pain or muscular spasms associated with certain medical conditions. The list includes conditions being researched at the CMCR, such as multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury or disease, cancer, cachexia, anorexia, weight loss, HIV/AIDS, severe arthritis and epilepsy seizures. So far, since the new regulations went into effect, Ottawa has granted a total of 658 exemptions from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, "of which 501 are still active," including the exemptions to cultivate, Swift says. The exemptions "have a maximum validity of 12 months." However, Health Canada makes it clear that it is not going into the business of supplying marijuana to those who need it for medical purposes. "The departmental position has always been to supply marijuana in a research context," Swift says. "People may have access to this marijuana if they are part of the clinical trials that are being funded." The plan is "that people who want marijuana for medical purposes are given permission to grow it themselves, or they may access it through these clinical trials." Oechsliin says the United States had a program of its own arising out of a court case involving Washington, D.C., resident Robert Randal, who had been arrested for possession of marijuana in the 1970s. Randal successfully argued that he needed marijuana to keep him from going blind. He then sued the federal government, who finally agreed to provide him with a supply of marijuana for medicinal use. Randal later set up a small organization to help others receive the substance for medicinal use, but the program was terminated in 1991. Oechslin said that according to her own research, a total of 12 to 16 people were receiving marijuana cigarettes from the federal government. "It was a very small program, and then they shut it down because they have hundreds and hundreds of applications," she said. Meanwhile, 646,000 people were arrested in the United States in 2001 for possession of marijuana. "To put people in jail for using it as a medicine is just inhumane," Oechslin said. Source: United Press International Related Articles & Web Sites: Marijuana Policy Project Canadian Links Feds To Blame for Flin Flon Pot Flop Carney Pushes B.C. Bud for Official Pot Crop Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #2 posted by p4me on May 14, 2002 at 11:19:48 PT |
| It is good to hear from you again Paul. I was wondering about you. I can only thank you for running for office and I only wish I could vote for you. Be sure and tell everyone that all the legislators need to go home and that if they do not elect you that the voter should be for anyone besides the office incumbent that has let the Schedule One Lie live. You may not get elected but you could do a lot of good if you advanced the idea that people should Vote Against All Incumbents. That would be my on my campaign pins, bumper stickers, and yard signs. Give 'em hell Paul. They deserve it. Vote for Paul Peterson and Vote Against All Incumbents [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #1 posted by paul peterson on May 14, 2002 at 09:09:42 PT:
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| In 1996 I tried to make a new product, from bromegrass hay, for rabbit food (pellets), since rabbits kept as housepets cannot tolerate high levels of calcium in their diet, and all of the packaged foods were made from "alfalfa", you guessed it, high in calcium. So I found a processor with machines in Madison, Wisconsin, and a small mill in Northern Wisconsin that would grind up the bales of hay into a powder. The guy in Madison took the ground product and sprayed hot steam over the mix, which caused it to bind together when sent through a scrin (like that meat grinder your grandmother used to use). Why don't the flyn flan people grind all of their nonstandardized product, mix it together and pellitize the whole batch? Then they would have a standardized product, which could be dose managed either by smoke or by oral usage (you could even dip the "pellets" in sesame seed oil to render them non-smokeable, if they wanted to). This is just the process I submitted to the State of Illinois a year ago, and promptly got my law license taken away, merely because I found that Illinois already has (and for the last 30 YEARS PEOPLE) A WORLD CLASS MM LAW (720 ILCS 550 SECTIONS 11 & 15) which would allow just such a process & program. I even contacted the DEA in Washington, they had me talk with the NIDA in Washington, they liked my idea so much they told me to 1) get my state people going on this and 2) get my research protocol set up and 3) come back with doctor money and paperwork and they would 4) GIVE ME A GRANT TO GET GOING ON THIS. Why, the DEA even told me that they would allow me to make a sample of the product, and then they would give me more time to get the research set up. THEN THE STATE OF ILLINOIS REFUSED TO EVEN CONSIDER HELPING TO EVEN TALK ABOUT THESE THINGS, because our Governor, a pharmacist, talked with the MARINOL BOYS, and they told him to GET ME OUTA TOWN. So now, after ASA hit town with his cohort ASHCROFT, the DEA and the NIDA won't even take my calls. It figures that they wouldn't want to help Canada actually learn something about this unique medication. So I contacted the Canada people with my ideas, and I am waiting up nights wondering when they will call me back (I won't leave any candles burning, of course). Remember that the Canada people have this really big border with the US of AMERIKA. They will flinch, just like every other less fortified country in the world. Britain seems the only one able to stand up to the A's, oh well. So I'll just try to keep going as long as my food lasts here, since I cannot earn any income and nobody (not even those nationwide advocacy groups) wants to help me to help get something going in Illinois, where we havew, remember, the earliest and best medical marijuana law in the nation! Why, just yesterday PRESIDENT BUSH came to town to raise 2.2 million for his cohort Jim Ryan for governor (and the DEMOCRATIC MAYOR, DALEY, even helped to raise funds for the Republican guy). Daley wants minor drug cases to go to federal court (since Rich Devine, the Cook County States Attorney, now mandates "drug school" for any first and second offenders with minor drug possession). Daley wants those federal judges to be forced to use their "mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines to fill those new jails that Governor George Ryan built (and now won't open, since they are short on money) and now they are starting to let people go for minor drug possession crimes (where there is no violence, etc.). Chief Judge Marvin Aspen, of Federal District Court, told Daley "no way", keep those crimes (and gun crimes) outa federal court. Now Daley has asked for the new prosecutor (Fitzgerald) to make this a priority (in a March letter to Ashcroft). Now we have George Bush making Illinois a priority to keep Republicans in the statehouse. Where are the Democrats? Mayor Daley seems to be distancing himself from Blagoyevich for some reason (even though he said he supported that guy and is on his campaign letterhead). The Republican guy (Jim Ryan) is now the Attorney General, but wouldn't investigate allegations I made about "improprieties" in the local lawyer police. Good story, or what? And its all true. Wait for the elections in the fall. There will be more surprises, methinks. PAUL PETERSON 312-558-9999 [ Post Comment ] |
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