GOVERNMENT TO IMPORT POT: REPORTS SAY

TORONTO (CP) - Canada will be importing marijuana from Mississippi for this
country's first clinical trials on the medicinal benefits of pot, published
reports said Wednesday.

Health Minister Allan Rock was set to announce Wednesday that Canadian
companies will be able to bid to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes but
need to import pot for now.

Rock's plan includes spending $3.5 million on a clinical trial to see if
marijuana relieves nausea and pain in the chronically or terminally ill,
sources told the Globe and Mail.

The first trials, using marijuana grown at the University of Mississippi,
will look at whether smoking marijuana helps AIDS patients.

The news reports say the experiment will be conducted by the Community
Research Initiative of Toronto, a non-profit group mandated to develop
treatments for AIDS.

The government is still negotiating for a second trial that will test a
liquid version of the drug that would be inhaled.

A third set of trials, overseen by the Medical Research Council, would be
conducted by Canadian scientists in a range of areas.

Until the results of the clinical tests are in, Canadians who apply to
Health Canada for exemptions from criminal prosecution for growing and using
pot will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Ottawa has received more than 30 applications from Canadians wanting
permission to legally smoke marijuana for medicinal reasons.

Toronto AIDS sufferer Jim Wakeford is expected to receive one of the
exemptions.

An Ontario judge last month granted Wakeford the right to grow and smoke
marijuana under a constitutional exemption.