Pubdate: Fri, 10 May 2002 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2002 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Author: Mack McLeod POT GROWERS COULD SUPPLY THE RIGHT SEEDS Re: Government admits: Our marijuana is bad weed, May 8. I remember reading that Marc Emery, a Vancouver mail-order merchant, had offered seeds to the government for its medicinal marijuana project. A simple search of the Web also reveals seed merchants worldwide who are happy to sell known strains. The Canadian west coast has the most advanced medical cannabis growers on the planet. Yet our government asked the United States to supply us with something we have not only in abundance, but also for something in which Canada has world leaders in knowledge concerning the use of various strains for different ailments. Why does our government refuse to acknowledge its citizens' superiority? It seems to me that Health Canada isn't serious about this issue. To ask sick and dying people for patience is ridiculous, when all the knowledge and material is readily accessible. Using police-confiscated material was bound to yield this predictably inconsistent result. Perhaps it was the intention to fail. And why did the Ontario Medical Association advise doctors not to sign the new medical marijuana access regulation forms for the medical exemptees? Is it because the forms ask doctors to make a declaration of medical efficacy that they can't prove? How could the new regulations have been written without the agreement of doctors to use the forms? Perhaps again, it's a regulation designed to fail. So which is it: incredible incompetence or intentional failure? Mack McLeod, Thornhill - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens