Pubdate: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB) Copyright: 2000 Winnipeg Free Press Contact: 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg Manitoba R2X 3B6 Fax: (204) 697-7288 Feedback: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/letters_to_editor/index.html Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Author: Kim Guttormson Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada) FLIN FLON TO GROW NATION'S 1ST LEGAL POT CROP FLIN FLON will be the first place in Canada to legally grow marijuana, with the first crop to be harvested and rolled by this time next year. "I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be the main man providing Canada with marijuana," said Brent Zettl, president and CEO of Prairie Plant Systems, who will grow the pot deep underground, in a mine shaft. Yesterday, Zettl's company was awarded a $5.8-million federal contract to grow medicinal marijuana for five years. They are charged with delivering marijuana, both in bulk and cigarettes, to Health Canada, so it can test the medicinal value of the drug. "We're going to grow some pot," Flin Flon mayor Dennis Ballard said. "It's another industry, which is what we're looking for." While Zettl can see the humour in being the first government-sanctioned marijuana dealer in the country, he also believes in the benefits the drug can deliver to people suffering from multiple sclerosis, AIDS and cancer. Many people in chronic pain or with debilitating diseases say marijuana increases their appetite and reduces nausea, but all the evidence so far is anecdotal. The 145 Canadians with exemptions to smoke marijuana will be supplied the Flin Flon crop by Health Canada if they agree to provide information for the clinical trials. In a space the length and width of three football fields 180 metres under the ground, Zettl will grow the plants in a shutdown area of the Trout Lake mine, creating about 10 jobs. While Prairie Plant Systems is based in Saskatoon, it has a decade-long relationship with Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting, growing a variety of plants underground while copper and zinc is mined next door. "It's a marriage made in heaven, in the bowels of the Earth," said Wayne Fraser, HBMS's director of environment. "A lot of plants do extremely well down there." Fraser thinks the underground location, about three kilometres from downtown Flin Flon, was a key factor in their win over the 195 bids tendered on the project. "The operation would be quite attractive to some people to load in the back of their truck and take back to town," he joked. The RCMP sat on the committee evaluating the bids, although local Sgt. Bob Bazylewski hadn't been notified yesterday of the new agricultural addition to his community. "You're under hundreds of metres of solid rock, built under a lake. You couldn't get a more secure area," Zettl said of the mine site, with its single way in. To get to this stage, Zettl's company and anyone who would be working on the project had to undergo security clearances. "You would not believe the due diligence we've been through," he said of the 13-month process. Prairie Plant Systems will be required to produce 185 kilograms of marijuana the first year and 420 kilograms a year in the remaining four years of the contract. The company will have to test the marijuana all through the growing process to ensure consistent quality of the product. All growing, testing and packaging will be done in the underground site. Construction on the 6,460-square-foot lab and growing area will take about six months, and Zettl expects the first crop will be delivered before the end of next year. Leaf Rapids, northeast of Flin Flon, had contemplated a similar project in its closed mine, but wasn't able to attract a scientific partner. They are looking at growing fruits and vegetables hydroponically with a Winnipeg company, Mayor Barbara Bloodworth said. While buried under the earth, Zettl will grow the marijuana in soil using metal-halide and high-pressure sodium lights. "I don't believe in hydroponics, because it works great for the first couple of months and then it goes downhill really fast," Zettl said of the method many illegal growers of marijuana prefer. "The problem is algae buildup and bacteria buildup. Besides, if plants were meant to be in water, they'd be in water." Zettl's company has long had an interest in growing plants for medicinal purposes, including the Pacific yew trees they grew in Flin Flon that contain the active ingredient in Taxol, a drug that treats ovarian and breast cancer. He's also experimented with growing genetically altered plants that have medicinal value, such as a proposal for rice with a polio vaccine in it. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager