Pubdate: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2004 The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456 Author: Dean Beeby, Canadian Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada) BAD VIBES ON LATEST MEDICAL POT OTTAWA--Some patients are spurning a new batch of government-certified marijuana, dismissing Health Canada claims it's a better-quality smoke. "It's no good," Marco Renda, 45, said yesterday from his home in Dundalk, Ont. "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." Prairie Plant Systems, which produces medical marijuana in an old Manitoba mine shaft on contract for Health Canada, began shipping a second batch May 21. Users complained the first batch last summer was too powdery, and far less potent than the package claim of THC (the primary active ingredient) at 10.2 per cent. Health Canada says the new batch is around 12 per cent THC, has fewer twigs and more flowering tops, making it a purer smoke. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake