Pubdate: Sat, 18 Jul 2015 Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB) Copyright: 2015 Winnipeg Free Press Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/send_a_letter Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502 Author: El Hancock Page: A14 FIGHT FOG WITH FACTS Re: Winnipeg marijuana dispensary closed due to complaint from Vancouver (July 15). Fifteen per cent THC is the average strength of marijuana. Australians are growing the strongest strain at 40 per cent, hardly four times stronger, as Pamela McColl of Smart Approaches to Marijuana would have us believe. She leaves the impression that all marijuana is four times stronger than in her smoking days, when, in fact, it is a small percentage. If you zero in on the very few negatives of marijuana, the 40 per cent strain in particular, and dismiss the myriad of positives, you are doing a major disservice to the public, unlike the service that Glenn Price provides. The independent researchers, not the brain-washing Big Pharma people, have proven the benefits of marijuana use. Marijuana, being nature's own, cannot be patented. Therefore, Big Pharma successfully lobbies against it. Making lobbying illegal in this country is long past due. Should the day come when I need medical marijuana, I would hope to be able to obtain it over the counter. El Hancock Langley, B.C. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom