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Conservative Candidate Backs Pot Mine
Pubdate: Wed, 23 Nov 2005
Source: Reminder, The (CN MB)
Copyright: 2005 Reminder Online
Contact: http://www.ffdailyreminder.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3827
Author: Jonathon Naylor, staff writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/flin+flon
CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE BACKS POT MINE
Federal Health Critic Steven Fletcher's call to shut down the local
medicinal marijuana grow-op isn't shared by Flin Flon's Conservative
MP candidate.
Nazir Ahmad said he supports the innovative project based in an
abandoned Trout Lake mine and wonders how much detailed information
Fletcher had before making the statement.
"If the society feels this is needed for medicinal purposes, I think
this is the best place we can produce it," said Ahmad, a local
accountant and city councillor. "It's a controlled environment and
there seems to be acclimatized conditions."
Ahmad added that as a candidate he supports any initiative that
creates jobs for the North.
Earlier this year in the House of Commons, Fletcher called on Health
Minister Ujjal Dosanj to close the operation, saying it "has been a
bust."
"The crop has little medicinal value and may be corrupted by mine
contaminants," he said. "Will the (Health) Minister shut down the
operation or will taxpayers continue to be shafted?"
Fletcher reiterated his concerns about the project in a subsequent
phone interview with The Reminder.
"I'm really uncomfortable with the government encouraging smoking of
anything, from a health perspective as health critic . . ." he said.
"It has been shown . . . that (smoking) marijuana is cancer-inducing
and is bad for one's health, and that, you know, is almost common
sense . . . There are other delivery methods that can be just as effective."
Fletcher also suggested money might be saved by relocating the growth
chamber above ground.
Christopher Williams, a spokesperson for Health Canada, which
distributes the product, said the underground location was chosen not
by the government, but by the grower, Prairie Plant Systems.
The location, he said, allows the company to control growing
conditions and meet the security obligations of the federal contract.
Some 1,200 Canadians are now authorized to smoke the Flin Flon-grown
product.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin