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