Allan Rock's Marijuana Garden
It is amazing. With every Cabinet post, Allan Rock brings down a new
series of disasters. He is, in fact, disaster personified.
It is difficult to understand why this is happening, since he seems
to be a perfectly intelligent person. He left behind a successful legal
career when he first ran for Parliament in 1993.
On his election, he was immediately appointed Minister of Justice
until 1997 when he was shuffled over to Health, and now he is busy
causing more disaster as the Minister of Industry.
Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that Mr. Rock had no political
experience prior to his appointments to the Cabinet, and he is unable to
grasp what he can and cannot do as a minister.
That is, he does not understand that his power is not absolute, and
there are curbs on him. Perhaps too, Mr. Rock just has poor judgement.
One of Mr. Rock's most recent flops was his enthusiastic undertaking
to grow pot on behalf of the government. The plan was to make marijuana
available to medical researchers to obtain scientific proof as to
whether marijuana actually has any medical benefits.
In 1999, the Ontario Court of Appeal, which has a well-deserved
reputation for legally unsubstantiated incoherent decisions, decided in
Regina v. Parker that marijuana should be freely available for medical
purposes.
A more sound minister would have appealed the controversial decision
to the Supreme Court of Canada for final resolution, but not Mr. Rock.
Even though he was not required to apply the decision of the
provincial Ontario Court of Appeal throughout Canada, Mr. Rock jumped on
the Ontario decision, amending the regulations under the Controlled
Drugs and Substances Act to allow marijuana use for medical purposes,
even though there was no proof it had medical benefits.
Patients were free to grow their own, or have someone else grow it
for them. In 2000, Mr. Rock enthusiastically opened a pot growing
establishment for medical research purposes in an abandoned copper mine
in Flin Flon, Manitoba, at a cost to the taxpayer of $ 5.75 million.
Unfortunately, Mr. Rock's pot garden has been less than successful.
The project supervisors were unable to acquire US government-approved
seeds from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda,
Maryland. Instead, they were obliged to rely on 10,000 seeds seized by
the Canadian police forces.
And what a crop it has turned out to be! Most of the crop contains 20
to 25 percent THC, the most active ingredient in marijuana. Usually,
street marijuana has a five percent THC content. Also, this Flin Flon
strain of marijuana is tough to grow.
Further, the crop failed to include acceptable "placebo" (0.1 percent
THC) marijuana necessary for researchers for control purposes to
demonstrate whether THC is effective in alleviating some medical
conditions.
All together, only a third of the seeds sprouted, producing 185
varieties of widely varying THC content, which could be used by
researchers, who require a standardized product. Only this part of the
crop, which contained THC in the 10 to 15 percent range, has been
retrieved for trial purposes
Currently, there are a few marijuana trials being carried out in
Canada. Health Canada provided the funding for those latter trials but
not the seeds, which latter were obtained from the US National Institute
on Drug Abuse.
Why then did Mr. Rock decide that Canada should grow its own crop of
marijuana for medical trials, when the standardized product could be
obtained for this purpose from the US?
It could just be poor judgement on the part of Mr. Rock, or, perhaps
he saw himself as the "Czar of Pot," as the first step to liberating
Canadians to the "joys" of pot, while, oddly, as Minister of Health,
ignoring its grave medical complications caused by its use.
That is, a combination of poor judgement and ego may have led to Mr.
Rock's extraordinary decision to grow pot. A poor combination of reasons
on which a Minister of the Crown to act.
(Courtesy Real Women of Canada)
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Tainted Rock
ALLAN ROCK, PC, BA , LL.B (born August 30, 1947) is a lawyer and
former Canadian politician and diplomat. He was Canada's ambassador to
the United Nations (2004-2006) and had previously served in the Cabinet
of Jean Chractien, most notably as Justice Minister (1993-1997) and
Health Minister (1997-2002).
In 2002, Rock became the Minister of Industry for Canada following
five years in the post of Minister of Health. Prior to this he was the
Minister of Justice and Attorney General.
In his role as Minister of Justice, Rock was heavily involved in
bringing about the Canadian gun registry. This program was plagued by
massive cost overruns, and is rumoured to be one of the reasons for the
failure of Rock's abortive leadership bid.
However Rock's tenure as a Federal Cabinet Minister was in general
characterised by controversy ranging from the handling of compensation
for victims of tainted blood donations to actions of his department in
the Airbus affair (which ended in a public apology and $ 2,000,000
settlement to Brian Mulroney).
Certain Catholic groups have called for Rock's excommunication from
the Roman Catholic Church due to his support for abortion rights. Rock
was also a strong supporter of gay rights, and specifically gay
marriages, long before it became Liberal Party policy.
With the election of the Conservative Party of Canada, it has been
speculated that Rock would be replaced in his role as Ambassador. He had
also been mentioned as a potential candidate to replace the departing
Prime Minister Paul Martin as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada
but on February 3, 2006, Rock announced that he will not run for
leadership of the Liberal Party.
Rock tendered his resignation in February and on February 16, 2006,
the newly elected Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced
the appointment of Rock's replacement, John McNee. Rock's remained in
office until June 30, 2006 at Harper's request. Upon his departure, he
called for an overhaul of the UN. |