Pubdate: Mon, 16 Apr 2007
Source: Peterborough Examiner, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2007 Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2616
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

MARKUP ON MARIJUANA

OTTAWA - The federal government charges patients 15 times more for 
certified medical marijuana than it pays to buy the weed in bulk from 
its official supplier, newly released documents show.

Critics say it's unconscionable to charge that high a markup to some 
of the country's sickest citizens, who have little income and are 
often cut off from their medical marijuana supply when they can't pay 
their government dope bills.

Records obtained under the Access to Information Act show that Health 
Canada pays $328.75 for each kilogram of bulk medical marijuana 
produced by Prairie Plant Systems Inc.

The company currently has a $10.3-million contract with Health 
Canada, which expires at the end of September, to grow standardized 
medical marijuana in an abandoned mine shaft in Flin Flon, Man. 
Health Canada sells the marijuana to a small group of authorized 
users for $150 - plus GST - for each 30-gram bag of ground-up 
flowering tops. That works out to $5,000 for each kilogram, or a 
markup of more than 1,500 per cent.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman