DUTCH GOVERNMENT CAN’T SELL ITS POT

[Alfa]

GROWING MARIJUANA, WITH DUTCH GOVERNMENT HELP

NAALDWIJK, Netherlands: -- James Burton, who once served a year in U.S.
federal prison, still gets a kick out of the signs at his marijuana
plantation here reminding employees whom to call in the event of an emergency.

The Dutch police.

Sixteen years ago, Burton did time in a maximum-security facility in
Marion, Illinois, and lost his family farm in Bowling Green, Kentucky,
after being nabbed with an estimated $112,000 worth of marijuana that he
said he needed to stave off glaucoma. Last year, the Dutch government gave
him a five-year contract to grow more than 10 times that much.

Burton, 56, seemed the perfect candidate to supply the Netherlands' new
medical cannabis program, through which terminally ill patients and chronic
pain sufferers can buy doctor-prescribed marijuana at local pharmacies. For
one thing, he has had plenty of on-the-job training, having grown and
smoked pot every day for most of the last 35 years.

"He's qualified to grow marijuana, I can tell you that," said Eddie Railey,
a Kentucky state police investigator at the time of Burton's arrest. "He's
good at it. He has a lot of experience."

Even his one-year stretch behind bars was not a total waste, he said, since
he got a grounding in the high-security techniques needed to guard a
government-sponsored cannabis crop. Thirty-two security cameras, three
vocal guard dogs and the occasional Dutch police car make sure no dope
leaves through the back door.

"It's better guarded than the bank here," Burton said proudly.

Dressed in a lab technician's white coat, his ponytail barely visible,
Burton nurses a deadly serious devotion to a plant that makes others simply
giggle.

One of only two growers chosen for the medical cannabis program, this
American expatriate in Rotterdam was sure he had found nirvana in the
Netherlands, a place to fulfill his dream of establishing marijuana as a
valid medical treatment. His euphoria about the Dutch experiment, however,
has been short-lived. The Dutch program's one-year anniversary is this
month and Burton and health officials are clashing over what to charge for
medical cannabis, how to test it and even how many varieties to sell.

"Everything I have ever worked for is going down the tubes," he said.

Burton says government regulations like testing and packaging are ruining
his business. His medical mari
juana, which is radiated to remove bacteria,
sells at a drugstore for about $11.50 a gram; local cafes, so-called coffee
shops, often charge less than half that, so many patients understandably
choose to go there instead.

"The government here is sticking its neck out on this project and the whole
world is watching," Burton said. "Unfortunately, they have made some
misjudgments and miscalculations."

But if Burton's mission to make pot the world's next wonder drug has
already cost him his home and his freedom in the United States, his
mouthing-off on marijuana's behalf seems likely to result in the loss of
his government contract, particularly since, in the government's view, it
violates a confidentiality agreement.

At the least, his recent appearance on a national television network here
lambasting the medical cannabis program has exasperated Dutch officials.

"Certainly there are problems, but it's not a flop," said Willem Scholten,
director of the Dutch Office of Medicinal Cannabis. "It's too early to make
such a judgment."

Burton has not seen eye to eye with the powers-that-be ever since he went
to federal prison in 1988, when a federal jury ruled that the marijuana
growing at his farm constituted possession in spite of his claims that he
needed it to ward off his glaucoma. He has stuck to that defense since,
convinced that three joints a day -- he prefers the term cigarettes -- have
staved off a form of glaucoma that afflicts some members of his family.

After his release from prison, Burton decided he had little choice but to
leave the United States. His criminal case had attracted enough news media
attention -- even on national tabloid television -- to make him an
undesirable, even among drug dealers.

So he moved to the Netherlands, where he could buy and smoke pot care-free.
In time, Burton started distributing marijuana to Dutch patients, which was
technically illegal but tolerated. Business boomed and he opened the
Institute of Medical Marijuana in 1993.

Three years ago, the Dutch government put out a call for medical cannabis
growers. With his long experience in the field, Burton easily met the
ministry's requirements, including that he deliver cannabis of a consistent
quality during three separate trial runs. In fact, he can grow 134
varieties, slice it, dice it and package it tastefully in a joint, tea bag
or even cup of chocolate milk.

[BA]

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- There's a whiff of crisis in the air at the Dutch Health Ministry: It's sitting on a pile of pot that it just can't sell.


The Netherlands rolled out a program last year that allows patients to buy prescription marijuana at any pharmacy. Some medical insurance policies cover at least part of the cost, but often not enough to offset the pharmacy price.


In a country where any adult can walk into a "coffee shop" and smoke a joint for much less than the government price, many say the experiment is a bust.


"I think it's a shame that they can't deliver a cannabis product a little bit cheaper than the coffee shops," said David Watson, head of Hortapharm, an Amsterdam-based company licensed to research and develop cannabis for pharmaceutical use.


"Why is it that a legal commodity is more expensive than an illegal commodity?"


The government says packaging and distribution push up its prices, and acknowledges its program may be foundering. Of some 450 pounds in anticipated sales, only about 175 pounds have been sold, said Bas Kuik, spokesman for the Office of Medicinal Cannabis, an arm of the Dutch Ministry of Health.


The government sells two varieties ranging from about $10 to $12 a gram - enough for up to four joints. Coffee shops sell it for as little as $5 a gram, with only the highest-quality weed fetching prices comparable to the government's.


Under the liberal Dutch approach dating to the 1970s, the law forbids privately growing and selling marijuana, and has no tolerance for dealing in hard drugs, but refrains from prosecuting the sale of small amounts.


The medicinal program allows pharmacies to sell standardized, quality-controlled marijuana from authorized growers to sufferers of chronic or terminal diseases such as multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, neuralgia, cancer and Tourette's syndrome.


The competition comes from hundreds of marijuana bars, thinly disguised as "coffee shops" to maintain the fiction of legality. Though patronized mostly by recreational smokers and tourists, people in pain who find relief from cannabis are also customers, paying less than they would to a pharmacy


Erik Bosman, manager of the Dampkring coffee shop, says many of his regulars are medical patients, and he even used to offer discounts for people with prescriptions.


At midday in the Dampkring, off one of Amsterdam's busiest shopping streets, dozens of mostly young people sit in a haze of smoke, sipping soft drinks, smoking prepackaged joints or rolling their own. A scene was shot here for the movie "Ocean's Twelve," and pictures of George Clooney and Brad Pitt with the staff hang on the wall.


The menu, with 23 types of marijuana and 18 of hashish, carries a "fair smoke" assurance that the cannabis is organically grown.


But many coffee shops are dingy, unappealing hangouts that hardly inspire a feeling of pharmaceutical confidence, and some seriously ill people will pay more for guaranteed quality, especially if it's covered by insurance.


One of two legal marijuana growers for the government program is James Burton, an American who immigrated after spending a year in a U.S. prison for growing marijuana to fight glaucoma. He founded the Stichting Institute of Medical Marijuana in Rotterdam, and for more than a decade sold pot directly to as many as 1,500 patients. He estimates about 10,000 people in the Netherlands use it for medical reasons.


In 2001 he signed an exclusive contract to provide the government program with cannabis. But the five-year agreement was terminated prematurely after he talked about it on Dutch television and was accused by the government of breaking a confidentiality clause.


"I finally had to come out publicly," Burton told The Associated Press. "The program's not working. They have less than 1,000 patients." he suggested the conservative coalition, which replaced the more liberal government that created the program, was not promoting it.


"The whole country is leaning to the right," he said. "I think a year from now this program's gone."


Kuik, the official, confirmed the program is up for review early next year.


---

[Alfa]

DUTCH GOVERNMENT CAN'T SELL ITS POT

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - There's a whiff of crisis in the air at the
Dutch Health Ministry: It's sitting on a pile of pot that it just can't
sell.

The Netherlands rolled out a program last year that allows patients to
buy prescription marijuana at any pharmacy. Some medical insurance
policies cover at least part of the cost, but often not enough to
offset the pharmacy price. In a country where any adult can walk into
a "coffee shop" and smoke a joint for much less than the government
price, many say the experiment is a bust.

"I think it's a shame that they can't deliver a cannabis product a
little bit cheaper than the coffee shops," said David Watson, head of
Hortapharm, an Amsterdam-based company licensed to research and
develop cannabis for pharmaceutical use.

"Why is it that a legal commodity is more expensive than an illegal
commodity?"

The government says packaging and distribution push up its prices, and
acknowledges its program may be foundering. Of some 450 pounds in
anticipated sales, only about 175 pounds have been sold, said Bas
Kuik, spokesman for the Office of Medicinal Cannabis, an arm of the
Dutch Ministry of Health.

The government sells two varieties ranging from about $10 to $12 a
gram - enough for up to four joints. Coffee shops sell it for $5 a
gram, with only the highest-quality weed fetching prices comparable to
the government's.

[Alfa]

DUTCH GOVERNMENT FACES MARIJUANA GLUT

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - There's a whiff of crisis in the air at the
Dutch Health Ministry: It's sitting on a pile of pot that it just can't sell.

The Netherlands rolled out a program last year that allows patients to
buy prescription marijuana at any pharmacy. Some medical insurance
policies cover at least part of the cost, but often not enough to
offset the pharmacy price.

In a country where any adult can walk into a "coffee shop" and smoke a
joint for much less than the government price, many say the experiment
is a bust.

"I think it's a shame that they can't deliver a cannabis product a
little bit cheaper than the coffee shops," said David Watson, head of
Hortapharm, an Amsterdam-based company licensed to research and
develop cannabis for pharmaceutical use.

"Why is it that a legal commodity is more expensive than an illegal
commodity?"

The government says packaging and distribution push up its prices, and
acknowledges its program may be foundering. Of some 450 pounds in
anticipated sales, only about 175 pounds have been sold, said Bas
Kuik, spokesman for the Office of Medicinal Cannabis, an arm of the
Dutch Ministry of Health.

The government sells two varieties ranging from about $10 to $12 a
gram - enough for up to four joints. Coffee shops sell it for as
little as $5 a gram, with only the highest-quality weed fetching
prices comparable to the government's.

Under the liberal Dutch approach dating to the 1970s, the law forbids
privately growing and selling marijuana, and has no tolerance for
dealing in hard drugs, but refrains from prosecuting the sale of small
amounts.

The medicinal program allows pharmacies to sell standardized,
quality-controlled marijuana from authorized growers to sufferers of
chronic or terminal diseases such as multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS,
neuralgia, cancer and Tourette's syndrome.

The competition comes from hundreds of marijuana bars, thinly
disguised as "coffee shops" to maintain the fiction of legality.
Though patronized mostly by recreational smokers and tourists, people
in pain who find relief from cannabis are also customers, paying less
than they would to a pharmacy

Erik Bosman, manager of the Dampkring coffee shop, says many of his
regulars are medical patients, and he even used to offer discounts for
people with prescriptions.

At midday in the Dampkring, off one of Amsterdam's bus
iest shopping
streets, dozens of mostly young people sit in a haze of smoke, sipping
soft drinks, smoking prepackaged joints or rolling their own. A scene
was shot here for the movie "Ocean's Twelve," and pictures of George
Clooney and Brad Pitt with the staff hang on the wall.

The menu, with 23 types of marijuana and 18 of hashish, carries a
"fair smoke" assurance that the cannabis is organically grown.

But many coffee shops are dingy, unappealing hangouts that hardly
inspire a feeling of pharmaceutical confidence, and some seriously ill
people will pay more for guaranteed quality, especially if it's
covered by insurance.

One of two legal marijuana growers for the government program is James
Burton, an American who immigrated after spending a year in a U.S.
prison for growing marijuana to fight glaucoma. He founded the
Stichting Institute of Medical Marijuana in Rotterdam, and for more
than a decade sold pot directly to as many as 1,500 patients. He
estimates about 10,000 people in the Netherlands use it for medical
reasons.

In 2001 he signed an exclusive contract to provide the government
program with cannabis. But the five-year agreement was terminated
prematurely after he talked about it on Dutch television and was
accused by the government of breaking a confidentiality clause.

"I finally had to come out publicly," Burton told The Associated
Press. "The program's not working. They have less than 1,000
patients." he suggested the conservative coalition, which replaced the
more liberal government that created the program, was not promoting
it.

"The whole country is leaning to the right," he said. "I think a year
from now this program's gone."

Kuik, the official, confirmed the program is up for review early next
year.

[Alfa]

DUTCH RETHINK MEDICINAL SALES


AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The Dutch Health Ministry, unhappy with legal sales of medical marijuana through pharmacies, will re-evaluate its program later this year and may close it, a spokesman said yesterday.


In a country where unauthorized marijuana has been easily available for decades, the government was surprised to find that prescription marijuana produced under stringent quality controls has been far less successful than predicted, said Health Ministry spokesman Bas Kuik.


The government is selling less than one-third of the marijuana it thought it would and is losing money, said Mr. Kuik. Doctors who had lobbied for legalizing prescription marijuana in the 1990s failed to prescribe it once it was available in drugstores. Sales began in September 2003 and fell flat, Mr. Kuik said.


One reason may be the high price of prescribed marijuana, compared with the product sold at the neighbourhood coffee shop. The prescription marijuana is about double the price of the unprescribed drug -- or about $280 U.S. an ounce -- since it must cover the costs of regulating production, packaging and sales tax.