Canada's Task Force on Cannabis and Bill C-45

Former Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan is said to be in charge of Canada's new task force on recreational marijuana. Ms McLellan will be reporting to a former Toronto Chief of Police, Bill Blair, in charge of the file.

What was disturbing to a medical cannabis patient was learning when Ms McLellan was the Minister of Health, in 2002 she felt “a certain degree of discomfort” around the issue of medical marijuana. She said “the courts took us down a certain path,” arguing it was not her government ’s choice to allow the use of cannabis for medical purposes.

What can Canadians expect from a task force on cannabis headed by the very person that was against legislation for the use of cannabis for medical purposes in the first place?

More than a year after this appointment, the Honourable A. Anne McLellan admitted that the courts have helped push the government into accepting the huge amount of experiential evidence heard
attesting to the important therapeutic benefits in cannabis - in the various forms and doses personally chosen.

The task force faced certain contentious issues that Ms. McLellan revealed as follows:

Medical:
The Canadian Medical Association felt quite strongly that a separate medical cannabis regime was not necessary under an 'adult cannabis user system'. However, the task force recommended that a separate regime be maintained for at least another five years, before a thorough review can be made.

Personal Cultivation:
The task force recommended that personal cultivation, strictly for personal use only, be limited to around four plants at a maximum height of 100cm

In terms of international treaty obligations, Ms McLellan stated that legalizing cannabis, along with regulating and licensing it, complies with the spirit of the international drug control treaties since the treaties speak to fairness, justice and public health . The perceived objectives of these treaties include the protection of youth and young people including keeping them out of criminal situations. 

The task force has lead to  Bill C-45 - Cannabis Act - First reading in Parliament

The THC to CBD Ratio - Inappropriate in Medicine

Although a number of cannabinoids have been identified and synthesized, why are we limited to only knowing the percentage of THC and CBD in a strain?

History of Cannabinoid Discovery:

Cannabinol or CBN, the degraded form of THC, was first identified around the end of the 19th century. The presence and quantity of this cannabinoid in your medicinal cannabis, is an indication of its age. Although mildly psychoactive, it does contain a number of medicinal benefits that contribute to homeostasis in your body.

Moving forward to the forties:

Roger Adams, the University of Illinois Department Head of Chemistry, identified CBD (Cannabidiol) in 1940 and subsequently, THC in 1942.  Despite these discoveries, it wasn't until the early sixties when these cannabinoids were fully understood and able to be synthesized (reproduced in the lab). During this time in the sixties, a number of other cannabinoids were discovered including cannabigerol (CBG), cannabichromene (CBC),Tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), and cannabidivarin (CBDV).

With the adoption and implementation of the UN's  1961 Single Convention on Drugs, the United Nation's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published recommendations for the identification and analysis of confiscated 'pot' which used Gas Chromatography as the method for separating like compounds in an organic sample along with purporting that the ratio of THC to CBD was an agreed method of distinguishing drug type from fiber type marijuana. If the result of dividing THC/CBD is greater than 1, it is evidence that the plant is drug type, however, if the result is less than or equal to 1, the UN deemed the plant to be fiber-type.

The adoption by the UN of  the two distinct chemotype/phenotype varieties of cannabis as drug-type or fiber-type was the result of a number of paid studies by the UN. In 1971, Fetterman, et al, using gas chromatography, argued that their research showed that the most abundant cannabinoids present in the leaves and buds of cannabis were THC and CBD.

During the seventies, after the adoption of the UN Single Convention on Drug Abuse and the UN's recommended method of distinguishing Drug-type from Fiber-type 'marijuana', it was uncovered that CBC had been misidentified as CBD due to the separation and retention problems using Gas Chromatography as the method to separate and identify chemicals in an organic sample.

Using the ratio of THC:CBD as the method to distinguish drug type from fiber type is inherently flawed and has no place in medicine, let alone forensics. The use of this ratio and the complete oversight of the other valuable compounds in the cannabis plant, not only obscures the distinction of hemp from the medicine, it ensures that hemp remains under strict control.

The cannabinoid CBD is unique in its effectiveness for treating childhood epilepsy, the other important cannabinoids CBC, CBG and THCV should not be overlooked in choosing your medicine as these cannabinoids are extremely important in the treatment of many serious conditions and diseases.

In order that patients and customers are not limited to knowing just the quantity of THC and CBD in various cannabis strains, it is necessary to demand the full strain fingerprint, including all cannabinoids and terpenes. It is only when the full fingerprint is known, are you able to better and more intelligently choose the cannabis strain that is right for you. 

The Race for Weed is Greed - learn the facts

Confused?

As the new 'Medical Marijuana' industry emerges, there is so much conflicting information about this plant's safety and efficacy, not to mention the controversy preceding it and still surrounding it, it becomes absolutely astounding, let alone confusing to decipher the array of contradicting information. How do we reconcile all this information out there? Who can we trust for the truth? Why does the government classify information?

In 1961, the United Nations introduced the Single Convention on Drug Control, an international treaty requiring signatory members to adopt and implement similar legislation including, against the cannabis plant, This entailed treating all forms of cannabis as a dangerous drug. The UN continues to state that cannabis has no recognized or known medical use and it carries a high potential risk for abuse. Consequently, to conform to society and per 'Blue Ribbon' reports, most, if not all countries conformed to eradicating the cannabis plant, including its industrial hemp cousin.

Would it come as a shock to learn that prior to the adoption of the International Treaty - Single Convention on Drugs, and up until now, both the US government, through their Ole Miss medical marijuana lab, and the British government, through their GW Pharma research lab, have continuously filed patents on the various health benefits they discovered in the cannabis plant?

To understand the emerging medical marijuana market today, and why only two out of hundreds of cannabinoids are being sold in the new market, requires an understanding of how those two cannabinoids came to dominate. 

After the UN created the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the UNODC emerged. The UNODC is an acronym for the United Nations Office on Drug Control. The UNODC, since the Single Convention treaty, has issued their publication: Recommended methods for the identification and analysis of cannabis and cannabis products

The above link will take you to a new tab and is the 2009 edition of the UNODC's latest publication on the subject. Since the creation of the Single Convention, drug analysis labs have been taught to use the ratio of THC to CBD as a reliable method for determining drug-type weed from fiber-type weed. Just as archaic then, the method for separating the compounds in a sample of pot was and still is gas chromatography.

The problem behind the use of gas chromatography as a method of separating compounds in a sample of cannabis, was in the separation of cannabidiol, CBD, from cannabichromene, CBC - it wasn't able to!

The emerging 'marijuana' market today, is still only focused on disclosing the quantity of THC to CBD, as if those are the only two cannabinoids in the plant. 

The following link is to a kindle book that can provide you with additional information: