cannabisnews.com: Compassion Club Wants Say in Pot Debate 





Compassion Club Wants Say in Pot Debate 
Posted by CN Staff on May 12, 2003 at 18:28:53 PT
By CBC News Staff
Source: CBC
Montreal -- A group of medical marijuana activists is attacking Health Canada for failing to include them on an advisory committee studying the the plant's medicinal uses.After extensive lobbying, representative from the Compassion Club received an invitation to address the committee, which met Monday in Montreal. The activists say they deserve a permanent place on the panel to address the humanitarian aspects of medicinal marijuana use.
"Right now Health Canada lacks credibility. They lack the experience that we do in dealing with medicinal cannabis," says Phillipe Lucas, a Compassion Club member.Since its inception six years ago, the Compassion Club has supplied marijuana to people suffering from painful, debilitating diseases including HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C.Beth Peterson, acting Director of Health Canada's Health Canada -- http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca -- drug strategy and controlled substances programme, says she didn't want the committee to become ineffective by growing too large."They weren't specifically excluded, but they weren't included." says Peterson. "We meant to try to have a balance of the different stakeholders.The committee includes representatives from an AIDS organization, along with members of Canada's medical community and police forces.Peterson says the Compassion Club's presentation to committee members will be taken into consideration for the panel's final report. News Writer c/o Tracey Madigan - Online News Journalist - CBC MontrealBackgrounder: Up in Smoke?: http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/marijuana_legalize.htmlSource: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Published: May 12, 2003Copyright: 2003 CBCWebsite: http://www.cbc.ca/Contact: cbcinput toronto.cbc.caRelated Articles & Web Sites:VICShttp://www.thevics.com/The Compassion Clubhttp://www.thecompassionclub.org/Montreal Compassion Clubhttp://www.blocpot.qc.ca/ccm/english.htmlGroup Calls for Health Insurance To Subsidize MMJhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16266.shtmlDecriminalized Pot Not Enough for Medicinal Usershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16264.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by 312 on May 12, 2003 at 19:27:12 PT
Update on hemp ban
12th May 2003By BENEDICT CAREYLos Angeles TimesThey're nutritious, full of fiber — and impossible to keep lit.Yet because cereals, snack bars and other foods made with hempseed and hemp oil contain trace amounts of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, the Bush administration has been trying to ban these products — increasingly popular with health enthusiasts — for about a year.But the products will remain on retailers' shelves for now after a U.S. Appeals Court in San Francisco said in April that it would review a federal ruling that such products are illegal.Under a 1970 federal law known as the Controlled Substance Act, marijuana is listed as a controlled substance, along with heroin, ecstasy, LSD and other drugs of abuse, said Will Glaspy, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, whose ruling would prohibit the sale of hemp products. "There seems to be an increase in food products with hemp lately," he said, "and the agency wanted to clarify what the law says."The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued a stay of the DEA ruling, which would have gone into effect April 21. The ruling has been under challenge by the Hemp Industries Association, an Occidental, Calif.-based trade group that contends there is no evidence that hempseed and hemp oil can be abused or that the food products pose a health or safety risk. It could be a year before the court finishes its review of the DEA decision.Manufacturers of hemp products have been lobbying to stave off the government's effort, which they say could have an adverse effect on the fledgling industry. "I just don't get it," said Steve Levine, president of the Hemp Industries Association. "I mean, there's more opium in poppy seed bagels than there is THC in these foods."Flower buds of marijuana plants typically contain 5 percent to 25 percent of THC by dry weight, Levine said. By contrast, the hemp harvested to make food products has buds with 0.3 percent THC content.Industrial hemp growers, who supply seed and fiber, breed varieties of the marijuana plant, Cannabis sativa, with sufficiently low THC levels that they produce no psychoactive effect in humans, manufacturers say. "No one's getting high on this stuff," said David Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps in Escondido, Calif., which makes products containing hemp. "I feel this is very much a culture war kind of thing, declaring all things cannabis to be bad and comparing it to crack and heroin."Hemp's long, tough fibers have been used to make ropes, paper and other products for more than a thousand years. For food companies, the appeal of hemp is that it's a cheap source of fiber with a high concentration of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, thought to reduce the risk of heart disease.The DEA's Glaspy said the agency has no evidence that hemp foods are causing health problems or are especially habit-forming. Yet the law is the law, he said, and ought to be clarified as soon as possible.
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