Pubdate: Mon, 06 Dec 2004 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2004 The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456 Author: Sandro Contenta, European Bureau DUTCH POT GROWER'S DREAM GOES UP IN SMOKE Loses Everything After Criticizing Price Of Government Drug Medicinal Marijuana Program Cautionary Tale For Canada NAALDWIJK, Netherlands--At James Burton's plantation in the heart of Holland's flower growing region, the faint smell of marijuana hangs in the air like a memory of happier times. "I thought I had reached nirvana," Burton says, surveying a huge greenhouse almost empty of the cannabis plants that once filled it. "Instead, financially, I lost everything." Burton had reason to believe heavenly bliss had arrived. Until recently, he was the principal grower for a Dutch government program - -- unique in the world -- that provides prescription marijuana through pharmacies. Supplying a government monopoly seemed a sure route to comfortable retirement. But the high price and disputed quality of the government's marijuana has the program floundering, and raised questions about its future. People using marijuana to ease chronic pain are turning their backs on the program, and government stockpiles -- dubbed the "mediweed mountain" by the Dutch media -- continue to grow. Burton supplied most of the government's market but still found himself going broke. He publicly criticized the program as poorly managed and overpriced, and the government retaliated by ending his contract. More than four weeks ago, he destroyed 50 kilograms of marijuana in the 2,500-square-metre greenhouse he moved into when it looked like money would grow on weeds. "I don't think the program's going to work," says Burton, 56. Holland's 14-month-old medicinal marijuana program amounts to a cautionary tale for the Canadian government. Since 2001, Canada has issued 753 marijuana licences for terminally ill or chronic pain patients. Users grow it themselves, or get it directly from a certified grower or the government. The program has been sharply criticized by both users and the courts as restrictive. To increase access, Health Canada announced last October a pilot project modelled after the Dutch one to sell marijuana in pharmacies. In Holland, before marijuana was sold in pharmacies, an estimated 10,000 people smoked it to ease the pain of illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, or to fight the side effects of drugs against cancer or AIDS. They bought it in coffee shops, from patient support groups, or private growers. Despite widespread public use, growing or selling marijuana has long been illegal in Holland. But it's tolerated in small quantities and coffee shops can sell no more than five grams to individual customers. This legendary tolerance has made the Netherlands a mecca for grass lovers around the world, and users of marijuana for medical reasons. In 1993, it attracted Burton from the United States, where he did jail time and had his family farm confiscated for growing more than $100,000 (U.S.) worth of cannabis. He arrived broke, lived in a tent, and washed dishes before landing a job as a computer programmer. He suffered from glaucoma and grew marijuana to use against the pain caused by drugs that stop him from going blind. He supplied friends also in pain and within years had 3,000 steady clients. Burton called his operation the Stichting Institute of Medicinal Marijuana and sold only to people with prescriptions from doctors. He tracked users over time, observing which of the half-dozen varieties he grew worked best for them, and earned a reputation throughout Europe. "The police used to come to my place, but they saw that I had a day job and I didn't sell marijuana to make a living, so they left me alone," Burton says. In 2001, when the Dutch government took the first steps toward a pharmacy-based program, it turned to Burton. He signed a five-year government contract to grow up to 500 kilograms of marijuana a year. "Friends I hadn't seen for 20 years were calling me up because they thought I would be the next millionaire," Burton says. "Selling marijuana to all the pharmacies in Holland -- it sounds wonderful." The only other government-licensed grower, a company called Bedrocan, received a contract for up to 200 kilograms a year. In February, 2003, Canadian officials bought 110 grams of Burton's marijuana and shipped it to Toronto for research in Canada's developing program. Seven months later in Holland, two types of marijuana became available in pharmacies, including Burton's SIMM 18. "Doctors can't be writing prescriptions for stuff called Purple Haze or White Nightmare," says Burton, explaining his marijuana's technical-sounding name. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'I thought I had reached nirvana. Instead, financially, I lost everything.' James Burton, marijuana grower - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But the high price put a quick end to the euphoria, especially for patients. Burton sells his marijuana to the government at just 2.50 euros ($4) a gram. But packaging, distribution, profit for pharmacists and 6 per cent sales tax brings the cost to patients at almost nine euros ($14.42) a gram - -- twice as expensive as many types of marijuana in coffee shops. "When everybody is selling marijuana for three or four euros in coffee shops, you can't go around selling it for nine euros," Burton says. The Dutch Office of Medicinal Cannabis, a branch of the health ministry, recommends patients that use no more than five grams a month. But patient support groups say it's not unusual for people in a lot of pain to use two grams a day. To make matters worse, Holland's state medical insurance refused to cover a drug considered scientifically unproven as a reliable and safe painkiller. "I expected lines at the pharmacies on Monday morning, but then nobody came," Burton says. User Marcel Hofman found the government dope expensive. But he bought it nonetheless, only to discover it wasn't strong enough. Hofman, who has AIDS, is a long-time marijuana smoker. He says he needs dope with a bit of a kick to stimulate his hunger and overcome the side effects of the drug cocktails he takes daily. "I might have kept buying it at the government price if the stuff was good, but it wasn't," says Hofman, 47, who works in a government welfare office in Amsterdam and smokes a gram of marijuana each day. Before the program, Hofman bought high-quality dope from the Rotterdam-based Federation of Medicinal Marijuana. It's a "buyers' club" that bought marijuana in bulk at cut-rate prices and distributed it to 3,000 members. It was illegal work, so federation officials were happy to send their members to drug stores when the government program began. Within two weeks, most were clamouring to come back, says Ger De Zwaan, the federation's chairperson. But the government is threatening to shut down the federation if it resumes selling marijuana illegally, De Zwaan says. The group recently got approval from Rotterdam city council to open a marijuana-selling coffee shop. But it can't sell more than five grams to any person, and is prohibited from sending it through the mail. For Hofman, the trip to Rotterdam isn't worth the trouble. So he and thousands of others are back to buying it from local coffee shops or illegal growers. The quality of marijuana in coffee shops is sometimes hit-and-miss. But they can offer as many as 40 types of marijuana and users can settle on one that works, De Zwaan says. By contrast, the government sells only two kinds of marijuana, and many users find them either too strong or too weak, he argues. "We struggled 10 years to get marijuana licensed as a medicine, and now that it's licensed, the program doesn't work," he says. Every month, 1,100 five-gram pots are sold in pharmacies through the government program -- half of what the government initially expected, says Bas Kuik, spokesperson for the Office of Medicinal Cannabis, an arm of the health ministry. The government has stockpiles to last seven months, he adds. Kuik says he doesn't know how many people are buying marijuana from pharmacies, but reports put the figure at less than 1,500 of the estimated 10,000 users. He acknowledges that the high price is turning away medicinal users, but insists it can't be lowered. Unlike dope in coffee shops, marijuana licensed by the government is grown according to strict standards, is kept clean of bacteria and consistent in strength, he adds. Kuik is confident users will eventually return to the program, but adds that it will be re-evaluated next year. Holland's centre-right coalition will decide whether to continue the program -- begun by the previous left-leaning government -- after the evaluation, Kuik says. At Burton's plantation, guard dogs still bark and snarl their presence, even though there's little marijuana for anyone left to steal. Only a dozen of Burton's "mother plants" remain, the ones that will give him the seeds for his return to the illegal world of marijuana growing. Burton is moving out of his greenhouse and starting over small. He's confident clients will soon come flocking, and that means even fewer customers for a government program already threatened with going up in smoke. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth