Medicinal marijuana users reject federal product

Almost a third of legal pot users who obtained marijuana through Health Canada have returned it. They claim the quality is far below that of black-market pot.

Let’s face it, the only reason we have medicinal pot is because of the campaigners for legal marijuana. This is not a good way to deliver the drug, inhaling any kind of smoke or particles is bad for the lungs and marijuana use does cause lung cancer, bronchitis and other respiratory diseases. The main ingredient of marijuana, THC, is available in pill form under the drug name “Marinol”. Some have said it is not as potent, but rather than research a way to refine that drug, we are going to stick with the reefer.

Call me paranoid, but I think medicinal marijuana is being used as a stepping-stone towards fully legalised marijuana. This is why smoking it is insisted upon, because it promotes the image of smoking pot. There are huge human and financial costs associated with tobacco and alcohol (tobacco cost the Canadian economy $2.5bn in 1991, according to Health Canada), and given the huge resources allocated to limiting the damage that these addictions wreak I’m sure we’d rather we had nipped these problems in the bud, that humans had never discovered fermentation and distillation, nor that burning certain herbs gave you a buzz. Here we have a similar opportunity, but instead of heeding it many people are desperate to introduce yet another addictive and harmful substance into the medley already legally available.

Government pot rejected by legal users

Nearly a third of the patients who got marijuana through Health Canada’s medical access program have returned the product, says an activist who sees that as proof that federal pot isn’t worth smoking.

“High school students in a cupboard could grow a product that is better and safer than what we’re getting,” said Philippe Lucas, who obtained the figures through the federal access to information law.