Conservative Candidate Backs Pot Mine

[SirBlazinBowl]

Federal Health Critic Steven Fletcher's call to shut down the local medicinal marijuana grow-op isn't shared by Flin Flon's Conservative MP candidate.

Nazir Ahmad said he supports the innovative project based in an abandoned Trout Lake mine and wonders how much detailed information Fletcher had before making the statement.

"If the society feels this is needed for medicinal purposes, I think this is the best place we can produce it," said Ahmad, a local accountant and city councillor. "It's a controlled environment and there seems to be acclimatized conditions."

Ahmad added that as a candidate he supports any initiative that creates jobs for the North.

Earlier this year in the House of Commons, Fletcher called on Health Minister Ujjal Dosanj to close the operation, saying it "has been a bust."

"The crop has little medicinal value and may be corrupted by mine contaminants," he said. "Will the ( Health ) Minister shut down the operation or will taxpayers continue to be shafted?"

Fletcher reiterated his concerns about the project in a subsequent phone interview with The Reminder.

"I'm really uncomfortable with the government encouraging smoking of anything, from a health perspective as health critic . . ." he said.

"It has been shown . . . that ( smoking ) marijuana is cancer-inducing and is bad for one's health, and that, you know, is almost common sense . . . There are other delivery methods that can be just as effective."

Fletcher also suggested money might be saved by relocating the growth chamber above ground.

Christopher Williams, a spokesperson for Health Canada, which distributes the product, said the underground location was chosen not by the government, but by the grower, Prairie Plant Systems.

The location, he said, allows the company to control growing conditions and meet the security obligations of the federal contract.

Some 1,200 Canadians are now authorized to smoke the Flin Flon-grown product.

Newshawk: SirBlazinBowl - 420Times.com
Source: Reminder, The (CN MB)
Copyright: 2005 Reminder Online
Contact: online@ffdailyreminder.com
Website:http://www.ffdailyreminder.com/
Author: Jonathon Naylor, staff writer