Pubdate: Mon, 03 Jun 2013
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2013 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Gloria Galloway

REVIEW BRINGS OUT ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

One prospective grower of medical marijuana is a law student who 
hopes Health Canada officials will be impressed by his "charisma and 
character."

Another has already developed his own "one of a kind" strain of the 
plant that will help "hundreds, if not thousands, of people from the 
pains and discomforts that they feel in their everyday lives."

And another owns a "highly secure" facility in British Columbia with 
panic buttons, bollards on its service bays and "bomb grade" 
anti-shatter windows.

There has been no shortage of interest in the Harper government's 
plan to open the medical-marijuana market to companies that want to 
grow the drug in a secure environment and deliver it to some of the 
more than 26,000 Canadians who rely on it to control pain, epileptic 
seizures, and other debilitating symptoms.

The government has received more than 50 inquiries since Health 
Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced in December that she was was 
changing the way cannabis is produced and distributed.

No more would the government be in the marijuana-growing business, 
said Ms. Aglukkaq. The Conservative government, which has never been 
particularly pro-pot, objected to the fact that the crop it 
contracted a prairie-based company to produce was being heavily 
subsidized by taxpayers.

And home production - which allowed Canadians to grow small amounts 
for themselves and another person - can be a fire hazard. So it too 
will be phased out, to the chagrin of many users who say the drug 
will become more expensive and difficult to find.

Instead, the government says it will turn the job over to licensed 
companies with secure, indoor growing spaces run by people who have 
the technical know-how and are prepared to meet certain standards of 
cleanliness.

The government plans to have the new system in place by March of next 
year. And the first stage to becoming one of those producers is to 
apply now for a licence to conduct research-and-development 
activities with marijuana.

That has prompted a lot of folks to take a look at their greenhouses, 
their abandoned warehouses and their surplus factory space and ask 
themselves if weed cultivation could be part of their future.

In places like the small Muskoka town of MacTier, local residents are 
faced with the prospect of seeing their community centre and area 
turned into a grow-op. And documents obtained by Ottawa-based 
researcher Ken Rubin through Access to Information suggest there are 
a lot more MacTiers out there.

Health Canada has received many private-sector proposals from people 
who want to get in on the ground floor.

One one "family-run business" with a large steel and concrete 
building located somewhere between Vancouver and Calgary says "we see 
a market to be involved in."

A person from Ryerson University in Toronto said he or she represents 
a group of investors interested in producing medical cannabis.

Another person wanted to know: "Will I need to go to university and 
get a degree? If yes, which degree?"

And a law student assured the department that he or she has never 
"failed a grade, been arrested, suspended, or guilty of a crime."

Many of the letters of interest came from people who are already 
licensed to grow marijuana in their own home and will soon have to 
obtain the drug from other sources if they are not allowed to expand 
their operations.

"I have been making my fresh product into food and have found it very 
beneficial," said one applicant. "To do this I need fresh product. I 
feel this will not be accomplished by having to purchase product from 
another grower, nor could I afford it."

In a similar vein, another current grower explained that he or she 
needed a lot of the product. "If, for some reason, I cannot acquire a 
commercial licence," they wrote, "I would be interested in applying 
for employment. I would be willing to relocate and I believe strongly 
I would be an asset to the medical marijuana organization."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom