Pubdate: Fri, 27 Dec 2013
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Linda Nguyen

MEDICAL MARIJUANA SET TO GROW

But some users worry that privatizing the rapidly expanding industry 
will come at too high a cost for certain consumers, LINDA NGUYEN writes.

Mark Gobuty isn't raising cattle or cultivating corn on his farm 
north of Toronto - he's growing medical marijuana.

Mark Gobuty, founder and CEO of The Peace Naturals Project, checks 
one of the cannabis plants in a greenhouse in Clearview, Ont. His 
company is one of the first to be approved by Health Canada.

His company, The Peace Naturals Project, is one of the first to be 
approved by Health Canada to commercially produce and distribute 
dried cannabis ahead of changes next spring to Ottawa's marijuana 
medical access program.

Starting April 1, the program that began in 2001 will no longer 
require medicinal marijuana users to buy their medication through 
Ottawa's one approved supplier, grow their own plants, or designate 
someone to be their personal grower. Instead, users will be 
restricted to buying their cannabis from a list of approved suppliers.

Gobuty, Peace Naturals' chief executive and co-founder, says his 
company is focused on providing a quality product, but he also 
understands the compassionate side of drug dispensing.

"We certainly have vision. We want to help people," said Gobuty 
during an interview at his secluded and highly-secured farm in 
Clearview Township. "It's really (about) the purpose and intent of 
the medicine we can provide.

If we can do one thing, we want to provide people with peace."

But that peace will come at a price. And some prescribed users, such 
as Marcel Gignac, from Amherst, N.S., are worried that privatizing 
the medical cannabis industry will come at too high a cost.

Gignac's supplier is a designated grower, but his wife, who also uses 
the herb to ease the pain from arthritis, knee and hip replacements, 
grows her own plants. He estimates she pays about five cents per gram 
for her medication.

He said he and other members from the volunteer-run Medicinal 
Cannabis Patients' Alliance of Canada, some of whom are unable to 
work due to their conditions, will not be able to afford market prices.

"My options are: I can sit back and suffer and die, or grow it 
illegally or go to jail," said 51-year old Gignac, who smokes 30 
grams a day to treat an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis.

The idea behind opening up the industry is to provide users with more 
choice, offer a standardized quality of product, and lessen the 
security risks for users who grow the bud at home. Federal officials 
forecast the industry will grow to $1.3 billion in sales by 2024.

Health Canada estimates that consumers currently pay between $1.80 to 
$5 per gram of dried marijuana, with the price under the new program 
to rise to about $7.60 per gram in 2014. Peace Naturals charges $6 a 
gram and offers a 50 per cent discount, up to a set amount, for those 
on disability allowance or social assistance.

More than 37,000 Canadians are authorized to possess marijuana for 
medicinal purposes, such as minimizing the effects from a variety of 
ailments ranging from cancer to spinal cord injury to 
attention-deficit disorder. That figure is expected to swell to 
450,000 in 10 years. About 25,000 now grow their own plants for personal use.

Under the new rules, users will no longer have to apply for a 
possession licence through Health Canada but, instead, be approved 
with a doctor's prescription.

As of the end of November, Health Canada said it had received 285 
applications for commercial production licences and approved three 
suppliers. It does not have a cap on how many commercial licences it 
will ultimately grant.

Paul Grootendorst, the director of social and administrative pharmacy 
at the University of Toronto, expects prices to rise in the short 
term but, as more suppliers are approved, the competition will likely 
benefit the consumer.

"It's economics 101. If the money is very lucrative, more companies 
will enter, expand the supply and that will lower prices," said 
Grootendorst, adding that privatizing the industry will also 
encourage companies to invest more in research and development to 
stay competitive.

Since it received approval at the end of October, Peace Naturals has 
produced 14 different varieties of cannabis, with varying levels of 
potency and side-effects. It hopes to have at least 40 types of 
plants available for sale by April.

Gobuty said the company wants to expand its greenhouse operation to 
60,000 square feet by the spring, doubling its production to 1,000 
plants. The plants are grown in rows in several rooms in a converted 
barn. Some grow in brightly lit rooms, while others are in the dark 
where exhaust fans circulate the humid air. The barn itself is 
surrounded by a three-metre high razor wired fence and about 70 
surveillance cameras dot the idyllic 95-acre property.

The company is convinced there is a strong demand for better quality 
medicinal marijuana. Since it started deliveries via courier in early 
November, Peace Naturals has grown its customer base to 800 
registered clients, and wants to limit that to 1,000 customers until 
it can handle more.

Gobuty aims to provide the best price and service for the product.

"We will be the great value when it comes to the active ingredients; 
knowing what you get, the consistency to that and the compassion," 
said Gobuty, whose agricultural experience includes growing 
industrial hemp and health foods, such as chia and goji berries.

His path to this business was not a direct one. Gobuty, a former 
executive at soft-drink maker Cott Corp., originally moved his family 
from downtown Toronto to the township to live a quieter life.

He became involved in medical marijuana after both of his elderly 
parents in Canada were prescribed the drug, and after seeing its 
positive effects during a visit to a nursing home in Israel a 
year-and-a-half ago, where it was commonly used.

"Because this is just still so new, there's a breadth of possibility," he said.

Gobuty, a 48-year-old father of three, said the company is focused on 
research and development and hopes to isolate different strains of 
cannabis that can be tailored to specific ailments.

Specifically, Peace Naturals wants to try to isolate, and perhaps 
decrease, the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC - the ingredient 
that makes users feel stoned - without disrupting cannabidiol, or 
CBD, a component of the plant that can ease pain.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom