The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Health Canada promises the latest batch of Flin Flon-grown medicinal marijuana is a big improvement over the first, but some users aren't buying that line. The first batch of the pot got a thumbs down from several patients who said it was weak, nauseating, and too dry. The second batch is now out and is also receiving poor reviews. "It's no good," Marco Renda of Dundalk, Ontario, told the Canadian Press. "I took two puffs and I put it out. It had a chemical taste to it. It didn't taste right to me and it didn't burn properly. It had no effect." Renda, who runs a website for medical users, said everyone he has talked to who has used the pot "has given me the feedback that it's not worth it." Eric Nash, a licensed marijuana grower in Duncan, B.C., agrees with that sentiment. "Patients are pretty fed up with the Health Canada product, and they do want alternatives," he said. Canadians For Safe Access, a B.C.-based medicinal marijuana advocacy group, is telling patients not to use the pot until it conducts new lab tests. See 'Explanation' P.# Con't from P.# "Nobody should smoke this stuff until we see test results ourselves and until we get an explanation from Health Canada about what happened with the first batch," said spokesman Philippe Lucas. Health Canada said the new batch has a two per cent higher content of THC, the active drug component in pot, and fewer leaves and twigs than the first batch. Catherine Saunders, a spokesperson for the government agency, said that people who complain about the product are not speaking for all users. "Informally, I've been told ... that the feedback (on the second batch) has been positive overall," she said. Saunders said Health Canada will continue to test the product, grown in an abandoned mine shaft at Trout Lake by Saskatoon-based Prairie Plant Systems, to see if changes are in order. Prairie Plant Systems president Brent Zettl argued that much of the criticism of the marijuana is designed to ensure that a B.C. operation gets the government contract instead of his company. His five-year contract with Health Canada is up on December 31, 2005. Seventy licensed Canadians have received the Flin Flon pot to help relieve conditions such as AIDS and cancer. A 30-gram bag costs $160.
