Pubdate: Sat, 21 Oct 2006
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
business_agriculture/story.html?id=5276cf74-e36b-4e0f-8f4a-2e779a2ebbe3
Copyright: 2006 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: Murray Lyons, Saskatchewan News Network
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal -  
Canada)

CONTRACT EXTENDED BEFORE GOV'T CUTS

SASKATOON (SNN) -- The federal Conservative government may have  
slashed research funding for medical marijuana earlier this month,  
but Prairie Plant Systems Inc., the Saskatoon company that has the  
contract to grow pot for approved medical users, was not negatively  
impacted.

In fact, company president Brent Zettl says a one-year extension of  
the contract to grow the marijuana at a secure underground growth  
chamber located in a Flin Flon mine workings was signed Oct. 1. It  
actually calls for a doubling of the volume for the coming year and  
more revenue for his company.

"At this stage of the game we're supplying about 300 to 325 people on  
a monthly basis who have an exemption for medicinal purposes who have  
a medical condition that grants them that exemption."

The number of patients gaining that exemption is growing so the legal  
medical marijuana program is now close to running out of supply, he  
said.

"We're shipping out somewhere between 32 and 35 kilograms a month and  
we currently produce about 20," he said.

Zettl says the one-year extension of the federal contract will  
provide revenues of $2.1 million to Prairie Plants compared to an  
original base contract of $1.1 million.

"From our standpoint, it's also a signal to the rest of the country  
that the product is being accepted and it is being taken up by  
patients who find it beneficial," he said. "It's a statement."

In the first year of the contract, some of the pot produced was much  
higher than the federal program wanted, because Prairie Plant's  
original seed source was pot seized by police. However, Zettl said  
his company is now consistently producing marijuana to meet contract  
requirements with a tetra-hydro-cannibol (THC) level of 12.5 per cent  
(plus or minus 1.5 per cent).

"In our case, it has to meet the quality control test," he said.

In an interview at the opening ceremonies of the new head office and  
laboratory building for Prairie Plants located off Highway 16 about  
three kilometres east of Boychuk Drive, Zettl said the contract to  
grow medical marijuana has raised his company's profile and been  
successful in giving his firm a "segue into the plant-made  
pharmaceutical industry as a whole."

During his speech at the opening, Zettl announced that the next big  
contract his biopharmaceutical division will involve using plants to  
grow a vaccine to prevent hepatitis C. That vaccine was developed by  
the Vaccine Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO).
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MAP posted-by: Jackl