Pubdate: Wed, 01 Feb 2006
Source: Daily Herald-Tribune, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2006 The Daily Herald-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/804
Author: Darrell Winwood
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?330 (Hemp - Outside U.S.)

PROMOTERS WANT TO SEE CANNABIS SEED OIL CATCH ON AS HEALTHY SUPPLEMENT

Karen Schaffer remembers crying one night with her husband Simon when 
they felt they had to put down their dog, a black Labrador.

The dog had injured itself, pulling several muscles and could barely walk.

"I remember we sat there and cried because she was suffering," she 
says, adding they considered having the dog euthanised.

But, before they did, Schaffer made a trip into Edmonton and stumbled 
across something interesting in a Whyte Avenue store.

Months later, the Schaffer's dog is alive and well and Karen and 
Simon were in Grande Prairie Monday night trying to promote the 
product they feel saved their dog and changed their own lives.

Marijuana in a pill.

In that Whyte Avenue store they found the product Med Marijuana/Medi 
Paws, a pill form that includes essentially cannabis seed oil. The 
product comes in two lines for humans and pets and the store owner 
promised Karen her money back if the pills didn't help her dog.

"It was five days later and our dog wasn't limping or anything," says Karen.

Impressed, the Schaffers started popping the pills and believe 
they've helped their own arthritis pains and eyesight problems.

While there is no scientific testing to prove the results, across 
Canada marijuana distributors and company are fighting stereotypes 
and trying to market the health aspects of cannabis oil.

The Halifax-based company Med Marijuana visited Grande Prairie Monday 
night with founder Melanie Stephen and the Schaffers, who live 
outside Whitecourt in the tiny town of Peers. They were hoping to 
break those stereotypes and find a local distributor for the pills, 
which are legally sold as a health supplement.

"Our product wouldn't get a flea stoned even if it wandered into a 
tractor-trailer of it," says Stephen, who admits she often has to 
tell fight the perception that her product is an illegal drug.

The company began in 1998 after the federal government began allowing 
farmers to grow marijuana under strict guidelines. Health Canada 
inspects the plants to ensure it has a low THC content which is 
considered the mind-altering part of the plant that smokers want.

Med Marijuana grows its plants on a farm outside the Niagara area in 
Ontario and, since its founding, has branched into a line of pills 
for pets and also a massage oil and lotion called Canabliss and a 
protein power supplement for athletes that Stephen promises won't 
interfere with drug tests.

Since the pills are sold as a health supplement it doesn't have to 
scientifically prove its claims, but Stephen believes the cannabis 
oil is the healthiest of its kind, containing omega oils the body 
needs. Stephen says the pills can help everyone from diabetics to 
people with chronic fatigue syndrome.

"We don't have a cure for anything . . . however it is the most 
nutritionally balanced oil on the planet. It just doesn't get any 
better than this. We are the Heinz ketchup of the marijuana industry, 
we have well over 100,000 clients using our products."

One of the people who came out for the seminar admits he wasn't sure 
what to expect but supports any attempt to make marijuana more legitimate.

"I think this is awesome. I need a source of omega oils and I don't 
like fish-based oils," says Josh Barnett. "It pushes a lot more 
positive feedback of the plant."

Schaffer says that's why the couple became involved in the business.

"I just want to get the word out," she says.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom