cannabisnews.com: Clinical Pot Went Up in Smoke! Clinical Pot Went Up in Smoke! Posted by CN Staff on November 17, 2002 at 08:15:44 PT By The Canadian Press Source: Edmonton Sun The first batch of marijuana grown by a private company under a Health Canada contract was useless for clinical trials and had to be burned, Health Minister Anne McLellan said. Prairie Plant Systems Inc. received a five-year, $5-million federal contract to grow marijuana in an abandoned copper mine in Flin Flon, Man., but McLellan said their first batch was not uniform. Prairie Plant Systems was unable to receive a supply of standardized marijuana seeds from the United States, McLellan said, so the company turned to the RCMP, which supplied seeds that were seized in various raids. "So there definitely wasn't any standardization of the product," McLellan said. "From the first harvest it was very clear - my people did the tests here - that there were all sorts of marijuana. Plants from different stocks with rates of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, that varied from plant to plant. All of it had to be burned." Scientists have since been able to produce standardized seeds that have led to a second, more uniform harvest in Flin Flon which will be used for testing. McLellan denied the perception that she does not favour the use of marijuana for medicinal uses. McLellan acknowledged the position of pro-marijuana activists, who tout the plant's value as a relief for nausea caused by AIDS and cancer treatments, among other uses. But McLellan said there is still no scientific proof of these claims. "In fact, we don't know enough," she said. "I asked my ministry to examine all of the research. The conclusion was that there is very, very little happening right now to determine the medical benefits associated with marijuana use. "There's a lot of anecdotes on marijuana use, people who say that it gives them relief, allows them to keep their food down etc ... But the problem is that if you want a doctor to prescribe you some pot, he would be very reticent to do so without serious medical and scientific facts that would allow him to make a clear decision." Doctors, McLellan added, are more and more preoccupied with the legal implications of prescribing a drug whose effects have not been scientifically verified. "If they prescribe this product without knowing if there are serious side-effects, without knowing how pot interacts with other substances or other chemical cocktails, they risk facing lawsuits," McLellan said. Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Published: Sunday, November 17, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Canoe Limited PartnershipContact: sun.letters ccinet.ab.ca Website: http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtmlRelated Articles & Web Sites:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmPrairie Planet Systemhttp://www.prairieplant.com/home.htmFirst Clinical Pot Trial To Use U.S. Stashhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14411.shtmlThe Flin Flon Flip-Flop - Globe & Mailhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13958.shtmlHow To Stall On Medicinal Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13823.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #5 posted by herbdoc215 on November 17, 2002 at 18:22:04 PT I hang my head with sadness.... I had long hoped that by providing real cannabis to Health Canada we could dispel many of the myth's attached to it's use. I went to great risk and expense to donate this cannabis, all out of my own pocket. This cannabis was some of the best in the world and my heart goes out to all those in need, we tried! I just don't know what to say, I am in utter shock she would do this? An entire lifetimes work was put into collecting those seeds they just wasted by growing wrong, then further wasted by being incinerated while patients are left to fend with junkies and bikers. I have been ripped off $500.00 this week trying to buy my hash my life depends on. So what they are telling me is that they want me/us to die, they won't let me grow my owm medicine without the gestapo locking me up and torturing me and they won't give any of us the medicine that I GAVE them for free (which they PROMISED would be given out to needy patients) and they have made me turn to criminals to maintain my life??? Day's like today make me wish this whole painful bullshit would just be over, at least the government has helped me accept death as they make it look better everyday. As Steven King said so well in Gunslinger series, 'go now there are other worlds than this'... Peace, Steven Tuck ,in exile [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by duzt on November 17, 2002 at 10:42:19 PT stain consistency the only way to really get a good understanding of what works and why is to have a variety of strains and allow patients to sample different strains to see what works best. They can then break those strains down by cannabinoid content and start to see what cannabinoids work best for what conditions and then start to understand why. Some strains don't help me at all and some work wonderfully. It's taken me several years to find the strains that work and that required traveling to many different countries to find many different pure races that worked for me then to find crosses witht those genetics. There will never be one strain that works for everybody, cannabis is a pharmacy in itself and the mixes of cannabinoids and terpenoids is pretty much limitless. I can see why they need consistency within a strain to keep it standardized, but they don't need one standardized crop of all the same strain because that won't give them near as much information, as if they really wanted to know. That's why NIDA sends out such amazingly poor quality cannabis, to help ensure the tests will fail. Even with that poor quality though, the research results seem to always say the same thing. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by null on November 17, 2002 at 09:48:39 PT depression ya know... my grandmother grew up in the dust bowl of the u.s.a. during the depression. one thing she always would say to me is "*Never* be wasteful." I wish the US and Canadian government would be thriftier with our resources. Wasting all of that cannabis is but one example. There is a reason the US has a six trillion dollar deficit. And thanks Dr. Russo! Maybe they need to read the Institute of Medicine's report as well. Of course, those phase III trial results carry so much weight. Indisputable data with rigorous scientific method is a must to win the naysayers. At the same time, I understand some of the hesitancy on Health Canada's part. I certainly want that program implemented correctly so that it doesn't get the ax later. Because of perception problems for medical marijuana, everything surrounding the cause must be done doubly legitimate. We dont' want the public to think "Well... we tried that medical marijuana thing and it didn't work." because of administrative failures. Stepping into the limelight and endorsing marijuana for medical or personal use is still a dangerous or difficult thing to do. Dr. Russo, I have immense respect for the fact that you do not use cannabis. No doubt your area of expertise often subjects you to greater scrutiny or suspicion from the medical community. As pro-cannabis people (everyone here at CNews!) we must be "upstanding citizens" if we want our cause taken seriously and the airs of "subversion" surrounding cannabis to dissipate. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Ethan Russo MD on November 17, 2002 at 09:12:40 PT: Untrue "I asked my ministry to examine all of the research. The conclusion was that there is very, very little happening right now to determine the medical benefits associated with marijuana use."I will be sending Ms. McClellan the GW Pharmaceuticals Phase III trial results. There is indeed a great deal happening. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on November 17, 2002 at 08:44:53 PT They Burned It Up! This really upset me. All that good Cannabis up in smoke and no one benefited from it. That's just about what I would call a sin! There I feel better. What's New [ Post Comment ] Post Comment