Pubdate: Tue, 15 Nov 2005
Source: Didsbury Review, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2005 The Didsbury Review
Contact:  http://didsburyreview.awna.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2381
Author: Brad Linn

MEDICAL MARIJUANA COMING TO ALBERTA, AND NOT WHAT YOU THINK

Ever since she and her husband met some Rastafarians while traveling,
Melanie Stephan says she's been intrigued with the cannabis plant, but
not for the giggle or a reason to munch Doritos.

"Up until that point I was like the rest of the civilized world where
I thought the cannabis was just something you smoked, made you hungry
and go to sleep," explained Melanie, co-founder of Med Marijuana, a
medicinal gel capsule filled with the oils of the green, leafy plant.
"I really didn't realize it could virtually save the planet, it has so
many uses."

In 1998, when the federal government passed legislation allowing
people to grow cannabis as long as it was less than 10 parts per
million THC, the psychoactive ingredient, which isn?t enough to get
you high, then Stephan's saw the possibility of forming their own
company and began developing their natural food supplement. In 2001
they became federally incorporated and Melanie says they 'haven't
looked back since.'

The Stephan's have begun the distribution of their boxes of capsules
throughout most of Canada, and Albertan's should be seeing the white
containers with the marijuana leaf emblem on health food and pharmacy
shelves any day now.

Bob Hedley, owner of Hedley Enterprises, which has a retail health
store and is a distributor of natural products across Canada, said
that this is a wonderful natural food supplement.

"We've had customers asking for the product and saying what the
product had been doing for them," said Hedley adding that because the
product is so new he hasn't had the opportunity to distribute it to
the more than 1,700 retail outlets he deals with and he's just getting
started sending to the hundreds of stores in Alberta.

He said the pills are very rich in Omega three, six and nine oils,
"which are very important supplements for many things, which is a
reason we've received positive feedback."

Melanie explains they have three scientific labs under contract where
the harvest of the cannabis goes as soon as their grower receives
authorization from Health Canada that the product is a sufficiently
low level of THC.

"At that juncture it is legal to distribute the product throughout
Canada without further regulations required and at that point the
stock material goes directly to the lab where they do up the analysis
of the oil and they extract the oil," said Melanie.

The seed pressings are extracted in what they call an inner
environment where there is no light and no oxygen and there's a cool
temperature so the oil won't have any chance to metabolize. It is then
placed in a soft biodegradable gel cap so the product can be orally
digested. There are 90 gel caps to a bottle, or about a month's
supply, which will retail at about $40 to $45.

Stephan Pyne, owner of Rainbow Vitamins health store in Calgary, said
he doesn't believe in the product because of how it's marketed.

"We're reluctant to endorse it," said Pyne, "They are taking what is
essentially hemp oil and pitching it as medical marijuana and that's
sheer marketing gall."

Pyne said it's a source of essential fatty acids.

Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in North America and
there is a direct correlation between that and low level essential
fatty acids in our diet.

Payne explained people use hemp oils for brain function and
cardiovascular health and the capsules have the capacity to regulate
blood lipids as a dietary source, but using the marijuana-marketing
hook doesn't bode well with him.

"We were introduced to this product and we did bring it into the store
and there always was the possibility that this was somewhat different
from hemp oils," he explained, "I don't believe in the product (as
anything other than a hemp oil)."

The same 90 capsule bottle of hemp oil sells for about $14 at Rainbow
Vitamins.

Melanie agrees that this pill does not have a cure for
anything.

"It's not a magic bullet, it is a maintenance system, it slowly works
to enhance the immune system," explained Melanie, adding it assists
people with auto-immune disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic
fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, multiple scleroses etc.

Melanie said that she and her husband, who reside in Halifax, are not
wealthy but they've worked incredibly hard to make this business a
success.

"We literally begged and borrowed from family and friends, we put
every cent we could muster into product development," she said,
adding, "We knew if we were going to do this we wanted to be the Heinz
ketchup of the industry." Shirley Martin is a licensed dealer for
Alberta. She initially became involved with the supplement as a
natural health alternative for her arthritis.

"I can tell you personally how much it works, I've never had anything
help me like this product," she said, adding it is certified organic
natural with no psychoactive products, so you won't get high or the
munchies, or overdose.

Shirley said the product will be available in all 19 Super Drug Mart
locations in Calgary later this week.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin