T
The420Guy
Guest
Poor quality led to the contracted crop being burned.
OTTAWA -- 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 yesterday.
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 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.
"That harvest is in the process of being checked," McLellan said. "It will
soon be available for clinical trials."
McLellan denied the perception she does not favour the use of marijuana for
medicinal purposes.
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 she 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.
Pubdate: Sunday, November 17, 2002
Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
Website: https://www.fyilondon.com/londonfreepress/
Contact: letters@lfpress.com
Author: Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- 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 yesterday.
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 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.
"That harvest is in the process of being checked," McLellan said. "It will
soon be available for clinical trials."
McLellan denied the perception she does not favour the use of marijuana for
medicinal purposes.
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 she 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.
Pubdate: Sunday, November 17, 2002
Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
Website: https://www.fyilondon.com/londonfreepress/
Contact: letters@lfpress.com
Author: Canadian Press