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They Make Millions Helping Pot Growers
Pubdate: Fri, 21 Jan 2005
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Vancouver Sun
Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun
THEY MAKE MILLIONS HELPING POT GROWERS
The owners of Advanced Nutrients beat back legal challenges even as
they improve yields for B.C. bud
Robert Higgins was juggling a dozen headaches. One partner was ill,
the other was exiled indefinitely, a new bottling plant was about to
come on line, the Australian market was heating up, and those goddamn
lawyers . . .
Unfortunately, in his view, Higgins has to deal with too many lawyers
far too often.
"Hey, the cops accused me of having 300 grow-ops -- I said, Come on,
what do you think I am small time? It's got to be well over 700!"
He laughed.
But it is easy to understand why police, or anyone for that matter,
would be scratching their head about Advanced Nutrients and the
lucrative market niche it has created from a nondescript industrial
building in Abbotsford.
Higgins and his two partners -- Michael Straumietis and Eugene
Yordanov -- are the biggest, most visible players in the thriving B.C.
marijuana industry.
Their company supplies specially designed fertilizers and growing aids
for pot farmers. It is singularly responsible for the burgeoning B.C.
bud crop -- and can arguably take credit for much of the success
enjoyed by North America's domestic indoor dope industry.
Its researchers have created products that allow growers to increase
the yield per 1,000-watt light to roughly a kilogram (two pounds) of
pot (more if they're punctilious) from the 340 grams (12 ounces) they
harvested not so long ago.
As well, the feeding and fertilizing regimes they have pioneered allow
gardeners to increase the levels of THC and other substances in the
plant to produce higher potency pot and designer strains of marijuana.
The company provides anyone with a medical licence from Health Canada
the equipment, expertise, nutrients and clones to grow their own
supply of marijuana; it provides medical marijuana to those who can't
afford their own; it provides in-home help and it has a toll-free
hot-line for growers, offering free trouble-shooting advice.
"The people we employ are doing a lot of testing on cannabis, our
products are designed and built for the medical marijuana user and
it's an absolutely massive market," Higgins said. "People are only
beginning to realize the overwhelming size of the industry and that is
why laws are changing and people's views are changing."
THE MOUNTIES SWOOP IN
To Forbes Magazine, a bible to many U.S. investors, Advanced Nutrients
is an exploding, $30-million-a-year venture poised to go public and
capitalize on liberalized marijuana laws.
"It's a vicious industry and that's one of the challenges we're
facing: defamation, business libel, people trying to narc our
company," Higgins complained. "That's what happened three years ago
when we got raided."
After an intensive six-month investigation, for instance, the RCMP
charged the principals of Advanced with trafficking in marijuana and
accused them of running a massive cross-border smuggling ring. The
Mounties used proceeds-of-crime legislation to freeze bank accounts,
seize assets, confiscate records and completely disrupt the business
and personal finances of the company and its principals.
To police and prosecutors, Advanced Nutrients is boosting the profits
and fueling an illegal underground industry dominated by organized
criminals.
After two years, the charges were stayed and the property -- believed
to have been the largest seizure of Canadian assets -- was returned
following applications by the partners in the fall of 2003.
"That was just ridiculous!" Higgins fumed. "I guess what happened --
we still don't really have the answers, it never actually went to
court, it never even got to a preliminary trial. But they came to our
homes -- arrested us. Came to our businesses, stripped all of our
assets, all of our files. We couldn't function as a company."
With the backing of both the U.S. and Canadian governments, law
enforcement and regulatory agencies continue to harass Advanced
Nutrients. Its products have occasionally been seized at the border by
regulators who queried the legality of some of their ingredients, and
its employees have been questioned by U.S. Homeland Security officers.
Police and the federal Department of Justice refuse to discuss the
case when contacted to discuss the search and seizure.
The Vancouver Sun is filing an application today in B.C. provincial
court to open heretofore sealed files.
There were actually seven companies involved in the investigation,
including a flight school.
"Don't mention the flight school," Higgins said, shaking his head
vigorously.
The subject is still an incredibly sore point for the stocky,
straw-haired, 42-year-old who has supported himself since he was 15
and been flying since he was 17 -- that's all he wanted to do; that's
how he met his partner Straumietis.
"They didn't do one minute of investigation on the flight training
centre, yet they came in, seized all of our aircraft, seized all of
our files and asked questions later. . . ."
As a result, nearly 60 flying students lost their training and the
money they invested in lessons. Even though the planes were eventually
returned, the school folded.
"I was absolutely devastated at what these idiots did without doing
any of their homework," Higgins said.
He remains outraged that police invaded his home and office. They
seized his computer, his top-of-the-line stereo components, his glass
E.J. Pitman whale sculpture, a collection of nature prints by Carl
Brendors and Robert Bateman, his boat, his Land Rover, his dirt bike,
his Tag Heuer, his sweetheart's $8,000 Movado, jewelry, his Ultraline
Professional Gas Barbecue . . . his dining room suite and his wine
cellar.
"My Brietling!" he said holding out his wrist, the watch back in
place.
"You know, those bastards even took my weights!"
He thought the police had gone way beyond what was legally required,
regardless of their suspicions.
"They are just bunch of wild cowboys coming after us, you know, for
absolutely no reason," he said.
"They did slap us with six charges. . . . However, that failed
miserably, so there they sit with egg on their face, but the damage is
already done . . . I don't think any other company would have
recovered from such overwhelming abuse by the RCMP."
The charges were a ridiculous waste of everyone's time and resources,
Higgins said.
"Maybe it will open up."
All of the legal trouble, Higgins insisted, was the result of an
immigration beef involving Straumietis and law-enforcement animus
towards marijuana and those who would legalize it.
I think he is right -- Advanced Nutrients is a case study in what
happens when a criminal law can no longer be enforced.
Advanced Nutrients is akin to a distillery in the waning years of the
alcohol prohibition -- a firm legally profiting mightily from an
illegal trade and poised to dominate if the laws are liberalized.
MARIJUANA MAFIA DON
Although Higgins is the president, there would be no company without
Straumietis, a brilliant, gregarious, 44-year-old with an amazing
green thumb.
But, without fanfare, on Oct. 4, Straumietis's lawyer informed the
Canadian Immigration Department that the man police say is a veritable
marijuana mafia don was gone. His destination was a secret, but he was
no longer on Canadian soil.
A hefty array of legal talent had beaten back marijuana trafficking
charges.
They even won back the largest seizure of Canadian assets in history
- -- except for a few things.
Higgins, in September 2003, retrieved his target pistols -- a Glock
.40-calibre semi-auto, a Para-ordnance P16.40 Limited and a Browning
.22 semi-auto pistol, his weights and the veritable cornucopia of
syringes, vials, ampules and boxes of body-building supplies and
health supplements police seized.
But he was forced to surrender an unlawful U.S. Customs Service Border
sticker, California ID and social security cards bearing his picture
and an Asp baton (police truncheon).
Straumietis's other partner, Eugene Yordanov, was allowed to keep his
throwing knives, bullet-proof vests, listening devices and ERT helmet,
but forced to surrender to police because they were unlawful, a
tactical knife, court studies on growing operations, a fake security
enforcement badge, a list of police and border patrol radio
frequencies and a file labelled OURANUS containing information on the
RCMP air section. He was also forced to forfeit a small stash of
marijuana, a chunk of hash, a bag of dried mushrooms, a box of shotgun
shells and a box of .22 calibre hollow-point bullets. A Sturm Ruger
.22 was confiscated and sold, the money returned to him.
None of that turned out to be relevant.
Straumietis was forced to leave the country and abandon his
$30-million-year pot-based empire because he came to Canada under an
assumed name.
Although the Oregon-born Straumietis was a fugitive from U.S. law
enforcement, he lived openly in B.C., building a commercial empire in
the marijuana industry without police or Canadian authorities
initially saying boo.
Straumietis adopted his wife's two girls as his own and, among other
assets, he owned or had a major interest in Chinook Air Charters
flight school, Canadian Soils Garden Supercentre, Polar Bear
Manufacturing (which supplied all the lighting to the United Furniture
Warehouse chain) and Mad Melvin's Garden Centre.
Straumietis was also host of a popular growing-tips show on Marc
Emery's Pot TV.
He might never have been exposed had he not done what he thought was
the right thing. With his wife as a sponsor, he applied for Canadian
citizenship -- so secure did he feel in his new guise that he stupidly
gave the government a real copy of his fingerprints. A proud member of
the genius-group Mensa, and a man who had lived on the lam for a
decade, he should have known better.
U.S. and Canadian police were immediately on him like flies -- he just
wouldn't know about it for seven months.
FROM FUGITIVE TO MILLIONAIRE
I met Straumietis last spring.
All six-foot-seven, 305-pounds of the man police say is B.C.'s Tony
Soprano climbed out of a glistening black-and-chrome Hummer -- licence
plate BUDS1, one of a fleet Advanced Nutrients operates. He strode
towards me extending a beefy paw and a grin.
"You got a cellphone?" he asked.
"Sure," I replied thinking he needed to make a quick call.
"Pull out the battery," he said, acting as if the phone were alive.
"They can switch them on and listen."
"Of course," I nodded, unplugging the power unit.
"I'm not giving them anything," the big man quipped with a smile,
softening immediately now the apparent danger had passed.
"Good to meet you. You know they busted us in 2001 and charged us with
conspiracy over 200 pounds of pot in Washington state."
Straumietis is a double for actor Michael Madsen, who played Jimmy,
Susan Sarandon's handsome hunk in Thelma and Louise. "You know, 100
armed cops stormed into our offices," he continued, swivelling towards
a nearby Milestones. "I don't know how many were DEA [U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency officers deployed in B.C. as part of the war on
drugs] -- but I'm sure they were there. There's 150 of them operating
here now."
It was a Saturday morning in Langley.
"They seized our planes, too, but we got them back," Straumietis added
indignantly. "You know what it did? It turned me from a businessman
into an activist."
Advanced Nutrients (www.advancednutrients.com) was the main firm in a
skein of businesses that included the flight school, eight
laboratories, a lobbyist, an image archive, a genetics bank, a
newspaper, a documentary unit, more than 100 different
marijuana-specific products and the largest network of medical
marijuana growing operations in Canada.
The company has 65 employees and estimated revenues of $30 million Cdn
in 2004.
Not bad for a guy who arrived as a fugitive in 1996, running from a
Wisconsin marijuana manufacturing charge with some $25,000 in his
pocket and a green thumb.
Documents obtained from the State of Wisconsin Circuit Court in Vernon
County tell quite a story about Straumietis, also known as Michael A.
Remington, a.k.a. Micheal A. Paulson, a.k.a. Tom Newman.
Jerry Fredrickson, undersheriff for Vernon County, swore out the
warrant for Straumietis's arrest, stating that between May 28, 1993
and Sept. 11, 1993, he was the brains behind a large outdoor marijuana
farm in Liberty Township.
On Sept. 10, 1993, Vernon County Sheriff investigator Thomas Johnson
and Wisconsin Conservation warden Richard Wallin found the farm
surrounded by a four-strand electrical fence. Inside, row upon row of
lush marijuana plants flourished, fed by an elaborate sprinkler and
fertilizing system.
The two law enforcement officers returned to town and got a search
warrant. The next day, sheriffs descended on the field and hauled away
1,869 pot plants.
Later, they arrested a man named Jonathon Williams, a.k.a. Michael
Lawson. He told the police he rented the property in November 1992,
especially to grow pot.
He said that on May 29, 1993, Straumietis arrived with a U-Haul
containing numerous plants. On that day, he estimated they planted
about 1,450 plants. On June 22, Straumietis arrived in a grand
Cherokee with another 750 plants. On July 1, Lawson said, Straumietis
delivered an additional 900 plants to the farm.
According to Lawson, Straumietis also delivered fertilizer and
provided him with a timer so he would know when to apply particular
chemicals.
When he heard about the bust, Straumietis fled.
He did not immediately run to Canada. Straumietis obtained a phoney
identity -- Thomas Scott Newman (new man -- get it), a real person
born in Texas on Jan. 6, 1965, but who died as a 15-day-old infant. He
hid in the U.S., acting in the adult filmmaking industry as Texas Tom
Newman.
He came to Canada on vacation Aug. 4, 1996.
Shortly afterwards, he met Cynthia Falconer -- a single mom with two
daughters, Macy, 14, and Dana, 12. They immediately fell in love,
began living together and Straumietis decided to stay.
Straumietis, who did a year of pre-med before embarking on his
hydroponic career a quarter of a century ago, was a born
entrepreneur.
He initially marketed his expertise in growing marijuana and his
knowledge about what and when to give the plant nutrients to maximize
the yield and its potency. However, when pressed by a supplier about
the amount of chemicals he was buying, Straumietis decided to go into
business for himself.
He got together with Higgins, who had taught him to be a pilot, and
Yordanov, a Bulgarian mechanical engineer who was a Fraser Valley
businessman. The three opened a hydroponics shop and began creating
their own gardening empire.
"I knew I could make better fertilizers than what was then being made
by all the other companies in the industry," he said.
"I was treated extremely badly by a female wholesaler based in
Langley, B.C. I said to myself, 'If she is treating me like this, she
must be treating other people just the same, or even worse.' So I knew
there would be a need for courteous and kind wholesalers in the
marketplace. Rob, Eugene and I created Advanced Nutrients, and we have
proven that courteous wholesalers who sell quality product are welcome
in the marketplace. Indeed, if it was not for that wholesaler being so
impolite, there probably would not be an Advanced Nutrients today."
Under the corporate umbrella of Canadian Soiless Ltd., they created
Polar Bear Manufacturing Ltd. in 1998 to provide heat exchangers,
fans, blowers, CO2 units, monitoring systems and other necessary
hardware for a marijuana grow-op.
In 1999, they began distributing high-end grow lights.
A year later, when Straumietis applied for citizenship, the company
was employing dozens of people including PhD researchers developing
scores of specific proprietary products for growing marijuana.
Advanced Nutrients nurtured a clientele of patient-growers, medical
pot producers and guerrilla farmers. They had major promotional
campaigns on television and radio soliciting growers and advertising
their products.
More than 700 retail distributors in Canada, the U.S., Australia, the
U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and France were carrying their
wares.
But by the spring of 2001, Straumietis and his associates were under
secret and intense law-enforcement scrutiny on both sides of the border.
'GULLIBLE SUCKER'
Rodney Weekes, special U.S. Customs Service agent in Spokane, swore
out an affidavit in proceedings in Washington state in which
29-year-old Canadian Travis X. Ranger was charged with importing marijuana.
Although neither Advanced Nutrients nor its owners were mentioned in
the U.S. criminal proceedings, the RCMP on this side of the border
believed they were the masterminds.
The information they relied on to reach that conclusion and obtain the
search warrants to raid the company and its principals was ordered
sealed by the court.
On May 30, at about 2:45 p.m., agent Weekes said Customs Service
pilots and U.S. Drug Enforcement agents covertly intercepted and
followed a helicopter across the border near Oroville, Wash. It landed
at about 3:30 p.m.
The pilot was met by Ranger, who was driving a grey and black Ford
pickup truck with a black camper shell. The two transferred several
large hockey bags and a couple of white, smaller bags from the
helicopter into the back of the pickup.
The helicopter, worth an estimated $500,000 US, took off and headed
back to Canada, where it was seized by the RCMP about a week later.
Meanwhile, the truck drove towards the I-97 near Okanogan,
Wash.
It was tailed by U.S. law enforcement to a house at 40 Utke Lane,
Omak, Wash.
Inside, police found the hockey bags stuffed with 91 kilograms (200
pounds) of B.C. bud. They also found cellphones, GPS units and
GPS/satellite cellular phones. They also found other empty bags
redolent of marijuana that made them believe at least one other load
had been delivered to the house.
Assistant U.S. attorney Joseph Harrington, outlining the case for
reporters, said the smuggling ring used remote landing sites in
north-central Washington state. The helicopter pilot and those on the
ground spoke with each other in coded language, used satellite phones
and GPS devices to co-ordinate and rendezvous.
In the pickup truck, police found a 9-mm Browning semi-automatic
handgun with 13 rounds in the magazine. They charged Travis X. Ranger.
Facing a lengthy prison sentence, Ranger pleaded guilty, saying he was
"just a mule." His lawyer called him just another "gullible sucker."
The total load, he said, was worth $374,000, but his potential profit
was only $2,000. He did not at any point name who was behind it all.
Ranger was sentenced to 57 months imprisonment. After his release, set
for Aug. 18, 2005, he will be on parole for three years.
A month after Ranger's arrest, police in Canada moved in on Advanced
Nutrients.
On June 29, 2001, Yordanov, Straumietis, Higgins, Norman Maxwell
Sinclair, Jordan Baker, and the helicopter pilot, Andrew John Ivany,
were charged. Police alleged that between Jan. 16, 2001 and June 2001,
in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Princeton and elsewhere in B.C. and the
U.S., they conspired together and with Ranger to traffic and smuggle
marijuana.
Baker, who owns a motorcycle shop, was also charged June 28 in Agassiz
with producing and possessing more than three kilograms for the
purposes of trafficking. Baker, Yordanov, Higgins and Sinclair were
also charged June 28 in Surrey with possessing more than three
kilograms for the purposes of trafficking.
In Straumietis's house, police found false driver's licences and other
fake ID -- he said the documents were only for anonymously obtaining
post office boxes.
He was held in jail for three months, but ultimately the charges were
stayed a year later.
ORGANIC IGUANA JUICE
Last spring, at the annual hydroponics industry show at the Vancouver
Convention and Exhibition Centre, Advanced Nutrients dominated. It won
the Best Booth Award.
Advanced offered a free bar with specialized martinis named after some
of its more popular products, such as Tarantula Juice.
Near naked women were body-painted. Bikini-clad models festooned with
live tarantulas and iguanas strolled between a fleet of identical,
gleaming black-and-silver Hummers and displays of multi-coloured
packages of chemicals, all for growing dope.
One of the company's products was Organic Iguana Juice, a vitamin
formula. Another was Piranha, a beneficial fungi, root-mass builder
and yield enhancer.
Staff handed out free baseball caps, T-shirts emblazoned with the
company logo, yo-yos and hemp tote bags.
Researchers were available to provide grow tips and explain how best
to use the variety of proprietary solutions.
One of them was Dr. Paul Hornby, a pony-tailed marijuana alchemist
(www.hedron.ca) whose concoctions were guaranteed to boost your buds
and whose caricature appeared on several of the company's products,
particularly "Big Bud."
Hornby's passion and love for his work, the promotional material
claimed, "produced unparalleled products that supercharge resin
production and substantially increase yield. Big Bud has been
extensively researched, developed and field-tested. Big Bud is
extremely plant specific. Guaranteed or your money back!"
Hornby sipped a Tarantula and enjoyed the show.
He and U.S. grow-king Ed Rosenthal (who also was on Advanced's payroll
with his own line of products) are among the most sought-after of
celebrity endorsements in the marijuana cultivation industry.
During the show, Advanced took over the Gastown club, Sugar on
Sugar.
In one room, the air was thick and a hazy slate colour from
smoke.
Throughout, bartenders poured drinks as fast as they could -- wine,
liquor, beer, highballs, name your fancy, Advanced Nutrients picked up
the tab. It was saturnalia.
Straumietis played host with his very pregnant new wife on his arm,
demurely sipping soda. His first marriage had collapsed because of the
trafficking charges.
Everyone took the time to come and shake his hand. Big Mike was
everyone's favourite guy. He grinned, shook hands and slapped backs
all night long.
It was hard to believe he had been arrested and held without bail
three years earlier as one of B.C.'s major crime figures.
GOODBYE TO CANADA
Although lawyers were able to deep-six the serious criminal charges
facing Straumietis and his partners, he pleaded guilty to a charge of
fraudulent personation when he entered the country illegally in 1996.
What sunk him was the refusal by provincial court Judge C. J.
Rounthwaite to grant him a discharge. Even though she had been told
that anything short of a discharge would prevent him from staying in
Canada under the Immigration Act, she refused to consider it a
misdemeanour. She did not think operating under false pretences benign.
She pointed out in her 2004 April Fool's Day ruling that Straumietis
was accused in 1993 of growing a massive field of marijuana, some
2,000 plants, behind electrified wire fencing. It was a sophisticated
and well-run operation, especially for that era, she said, less than
swayed by Straumietis's protestations of innocence and an affidavit
from his original accuser recanting the allegations.
"If the allegations had been true I would have simply continued to run
in my own name," Straumietis said. "I decided to take a false name
because the allegations were not true and I expected that the
authorities would pursue these allegations forever and that I would
have to create a new identity to avoid them for the rest of my life."
He pleaded with Rounthwaite to give him a second chance.
"I do not want to run away any more," he said.
Even the man who was the key witness against him in Wisconsin
supported him.
In a deposition from his current home in Virginia Beach, Va., Lawson
explained that when he was arrested in September 1993, he was
intoxicated and addicted to cocaine.
He said police threatened him with 45 years in prison and that he
implicated Straumietis to reduce his own sentence (Lawson was
sentenced to 10 years in February 1994) and to get back at him for
stealing his girlfriend.
He said that although he had plenty of time to change his story, he
repeated the lies during a taped interview on Nov. 4, 1993 with his
lawyer present.
"Again," he swore, "the taped interview on Nov. 4, 1993 [with his
lawyer, the prosecutor and police present] concerning Michael
Straumietis was completely false concerning involvement in my
marijuana growing activities."
Rounthwaite was still concerned.
Straumietis came to Canada and lived under a false identity, she said,
filed numerous phoney immigration forms, denied he had a criminal
record and submitted fingerprints that belonged to someone else.
"Remarkably, while in Canada, the accused has established successful
businesses," the judge said referring to the glowing Forbes article
that was submitted to the court. "From the community, the defence has
filed 30 letters of support from medical marijuana users, employees,
distributors, researchers, scientists. They all speak of affection,
respect and high regard for the accused."
But Rounthwaite said a discharge would be suitable only if Straumietis
was of good character, had no previous conviction or discharge, and
didn't require any personal deterrence or rehabilitation.
"The accused has a criminal record from 20 years ago including
obstruction, theft, possession of stolen property and driving under
suspension," she decided. "When he was arrested in 2001, he possessed
a quantity of other false identification documents: for example,
driver's licences with his photograph in five other names and American
social security cards in three other names. Notwithstanding the
glowing testimonials of his supporters, Mr. Straumietis cannot be
described as a person of previous good character. His dishonesty has
spanned two decades."
His personation she said was premeditated and required repeated and
persistent acts of deception over a long period of time.
"Sentencing principles of general deterrence and denunciation
required, not just that a conviction be recorded, but a sentence that
reflects jail," the judge said. "I recognize that this conviction will
render Mr. Straumietis inadmissible for immigration purposes. That
should not be considered as an indirect consequence of the conviction,
but rather a direct and natural consequence flowing from the facts of
the offence. . . . He has only himself to blame."
Given that he had already served the equivalent of five months in
prison awaiting trial, Straumietis was sentenced to one day in jail --
paper time only. He was not taken into custody. His real sentence was
boarding the plane and leaving the country he loved, the country that
made him rich, not knowing whether he will ever be allowed to return.
UNLOCKING CANNABIS MYSTERIES
Robert Higgins arrived at Cardero's seaside restaurant feeling on top
of the world.
"Do you know about Advanced Nutrients?" the boyish-faced 42-year-old
asked the waitress. "We make nutrients for medical marijuana growers.
Unfortunately, all the big commercial growers buy all the nutrients
and have turned this tiny little Abbotsford company into a
multimillion-dollar corporation."
"That would be a good thing, wouldn't it?" the waitress
replied.
"I'm enjoying it so far," he said, picking up the wine list. "What
year is the Dominus?"
Higgins, who is a stunt pilot in his spare time, has a cellar of 8,000
bottles and loves exceptional wine.
Raised as a poor kid on welfare in Ontario, Higgins moved to B.C. in
1990 and had grown to appreciate the good life. He had just bought his
mum a new house next door to his own.
Sales were skyrocketing, but Higgins still had trouble believing Big
Mike was gone. "A man comes here, he's living here for seven years,
maybe he was under an assumed name," Higgins lamented.
"But he got himself married here, he had two beautiful step-daughters.
At the time they threw him out of the country he had created jobs for
almost 200 individuals. They really had no basis or foundation for not
granting him at least some kind of status to stay here in Canada. It's
absolutely ludicrous."
He shook his head.
"Let's talk about the business -- it's going great," he said with a
grin.
He had just returned from the Montreal trade show and Advanced
Nutrients was a hit again.
From a folder, he pulled pictures of near-naked women airbrushed with
colourful tarantulas and piranhas.
"We gave away Metallica tickets for this one," he said. "Front row
seats and a huge party. It was incredible."
Advanced Nutrients products can be found in hundreds of stores, some
700 in Canada, 400 in the U.S., hundreds more around the globe.
"What we have over our competition is we are researching cannabis,"
Higgins said.
"We have the largest facility anywhere in the world. We have doctors,
chemists, with a long history researching cannabis, trying to unlock
the mysteries. We talk about cannabis, we talk about marijuana, and we
do hard research -- about $500,000 a year on R and D."
The company was advertising in a dozen trade publications -- Heads,
High Times, Weed World, Soft Secrets, High Life, Cannabis Culture,
Cannabis Health. Locally, Advanced Nutrients was all over CFOX and
Rock 101 -- 31 slots a week, a $250,000 campaign. There was also a
weekly calendar girl in the Buy and Sell, another $250,000.
But while the firm emphasizes the medicinal properties and medical
applications of the plant, the fact remains that in Canada fewer than
1,000 people have exemptions from Health Canada to possess or grow
marijuana. To supply them with all the pot they could smoke would
require only a few thousand dollars annually worth of fertilizer and
feed. I pointed out the anomaly to Higgins.
He shrugged. He didn't really care -- as long as anyone growing pot
used Advanced Nutrients.
"Maybe a lot of these people are waiting for their exemption," he
quipped. "Maybe they don't speak bureaucratese. Maybe they're too sick
to wait."
AMERICAN BUILDS CANADIAN BUSINESS SERVING THE MARIJUANA INDUSTRY:
May 29, 1993: U.S. police are told by a man facing a long prison
stretch for pot growing that Michael Straumietis arrived at a
Wisconsin farm with a U-Haul containing numerous marijuana plants. On
June 22, the police witness says, he arrived with another 750 plants
in a Grand Cherokee and on July 1, delivered an additional 900 plants.
Sept. 10, 1993: Vernon County Sheriff investigator Thomas Johnson and
Wisconsin conservation warden Richard Wallin find the farm surrounded
by a four-strand electrical fence. Inside, row upon row of marijuana
plants flourish, fed by an elaborate sprinkler and fertilizing system.
Aug. 4, 1996: After two years of living underground under the assumed
name of Tom Newman, Straumietis comes to Canada on vacation. He meets
his future wife and decides to stay.
Sept. 11, 1999: Michael Straumietis marries Cynthia Falconer, a single
mother with two teenage daughters.
Oct. 14, 1999: Straumietis, Robert Higgins and Eugene Yordanov
incorporate Advanced Hydroponics Ltd., the company that was the
forerunner of Advanced Nutrients. It is the beginning of what has
become a $30-million-a-year fertilizer and plant food company
supporting the marijuana industry.
Fall 2000: With his wife acting as his sponsor, Straumietis applies
for Canadian citizenship under his alias Newman. His fingerprints
reveal his true identity.
Jan. 2001: The RCMP begins investigating Straumietis, his partners and
Advanced Nutrients because of concerns about cross-border marijuana
smuggling.
May 30, 2001: A helicopter makes an unreported crossing into American
airspace and is intercepted and followed by U.S. Customs agents. They
watch as the helicopter lands and unloads several hockey bags of marijuana.
June 28, 2001: Police raid Advanced Nutrients, the homes of its
principals and several other locations across the Lower Mainland. They
allege drug trafficking.
Sept. 2003:
All assets, but a few items that were declared illegal in Canada, are
returned to Advanced Nutrients and its principals; charges against
them are stayed.
April 1, 2004: Judge C.J. Rounthwaite files her reasons for sentencing
Straumietis to one day in jail rather than giving him a discharge for
illicitly coming to Canada under an assumed name.
Oct. 4, 2004: His legal fight exhausted, Straumietis leaves the
country.
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MAP posted-by: Derek