Pubdate: Fri, 09 May 2014
Source: Tribune, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014, Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact: http://www.wellandtribune.ca/letters
Website: http://www.wellandtribune.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2807
Author: Greg Furminger
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

POT FARM ON WORLD RADAR

Interest High in Port Colborne's Muileboom Organics

A Port Colborne organics farm hoping to secure one of Canada's first 
commercial licences to grow medical marijuana is garnering attention 
from well beyond Niagara.

On Thursday morning, a couple of officials from Uruguay, including an 
army colonel, were joined by Canadian connections to tour the 
Muile-boom Organics operation on Pinecrest Rd. on Port Colborne's 
rural east side.

The farm's communications director, Steve McNeill, said interest has 
also been shown from areas in the U. S. via phone calls.

"We're pretty proud that Muileboom and Port Colborne is starting to 
get this international attention," he said.

"It starts to snowball, because people start to hear about how we do 
things. Our business plan is becoming a model for others."

He said the Uruguay visit was arranged through the farm's established 
contacts in Toronto, and follows upon that country's decision last 
December to legalize marijuana - including for recreational use - in 
hopes of killing off the illegal drug trade through legitimate 
production and reduced pricing.

Visitors, including politicians from local municipalities, want to 
know how the operation works and how it's kept secure. McNeil noted 
the lead security consultant is Kash Heed, a former solicitor general 
for the British Columbia government and a former West Vancouver police chief.

All employees and board members have been fingerprinted and undergone 
a security check by the RCMP. Among them is Dr. Paul Rothbart, of the 
Rothbart Centre for Pain Care in Toronto, and former prime minister 
John Turner, who was also once Canada's justice minister.

"With Turner on board, it gives us national and international 
attention," company president and board chair Marc Kealey, a former 
CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists' Association, said of the interest 
generated by the Muileboom farm.

After Thursday's tour, he checked his e-mail and found queries from 
three other groups: one each from eastern and southwestern Ontario 
communities and one from a physicians group east of Oshawa. Kealey 
said sharing details of how Muileboom works - operations, security, 
quality control, dispensing - is an "opportunity to expand 
proficiency" in producing medical marijuana, adding the Port Colborne 
operation "could be a showpiece for the entire world."

Neighbours would argue with that - and have done so on several 
occasions to municipalities over fears of crime and skunky odours.

As people start thinking more about images of sick children and 
suffering adults, and less about the drug subculture, then that's 
when things "will start to turn around," McNeill said.

He shared that the facility surrounded by chain-link fence has 64 
motion- activated security cameras and a walk-in bank vault with 
biometrics. Th e greenhouse operation is currently producing 680 plants.

For a growth industry so new, McNeill said there have been 
difficulties disassociating the farm with the illicit drug trade and 
Hells Angels.

"We see this as a very important health-care industry. What we're 
doing is going to improve the quality of life for so many people," he 
said. "We're not the bad guy."

The farm once revered for its organically grown tomatoes, is treated 
strictly like a regular laboratory, where employees wear white lab 
coats and protective gear.

A quality assurance expert with degrees in biology and horticulture 
is part of the now eight-member workforce which is working to develop 
differing strains of marijuana for varying strengths of THC - the 
ingredient that makes people high - and cannabinoids, which cause no 
buzz but which are suitable for children and to control seizures.

McNeil s a i d a s research progresses, the aim is to drive down 
costs of medicinal marijuana to about $4 to $6 a gram - whereas on 
the street it fetches about $ 10 to $ 15. The four people now served 
by Muileboom - which is licensed to supply individuals - pay out of 
pocket for a drug still classified as an illegal narcotic.

Supplies are shipped in maximum 30- gram doses via courier. A 
doctor's prescription is faxed in to have an order filled. "No one 
buys here," he said. Since 2001 when the ministry first issued 
licences to grow for individuals, there were fewer than 100 approved 
users, McNeill said. There are now 38,000 licence holders in Ontario, 
a number McNeill said is expected to grow to 450,000 by 2024.

Kealey said as the company awaits a Health Canada inspection related 
to the next stage of its development, several charcoal filters have 
been purchased to eliminate odours, those produced during the bud 
stage of plants.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom