Pubdate: Wed, 25 May 2011 Source: Daily Courier, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2011 The Okanagan Valley Group of Newspapers Contact: http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/includes/email_forms/letters_to_editor.php Website: http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/531 Author: Steve MacNaull, The Daily Courier LEARN TO GROW POT - LEGALLY Don Schultz knows he's started a controversial business. It's Greenline Academy, a firm that helps patients and growers be compliant in the medical marijuana industry. "Of course, there are people who think what I'm doing is wrong and the whole industry is wrong," said Schultz. "But medical marijuana is also an exciting industry with opportunities for patients to manage their pain and growers to provide compliant marijuana to these patients." Numerous times during the conversation, Schultz stresses compliance. That's because the federal government and Health Canada have a myriad of laws, rules and regulations when it comes to medical marijuana. Schultz advises patients and growers follow the rules so the industry doesn't get a bad name. The process is so complicated Greenline Academy's first information seminar for potential patients and growers takes two days. This Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. potential patients and growers can listen to doctors, lawyers and professional growers outline the medical benefits of marijuana, the paperwork needed, how to grow organic marijuana from seed to harvest and curing to sale and the ethics of being in the business. While most people know of marijuana as 'weed,' 'grass' or 'pot' that's smoked recreationally for a giggly or mellow high, Schultz stresses it's also a medicine. "We don't recommend patients smoke it because that's bad for your lungs," he said. "But marijuana can provide instant pain relief when taken through a vapourizer, in an edible format or as a topical ointment for patients with a variety of medical conditions from cancer, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease to arthritis, Alzheimer's and end of life pain." Schultz grew up in Kelowna and graduated from Kelowna Secondary School in 1972 before moving to the U.S. to work as a pilot and a real estate developer in Oregon. When the real estate industry bottomed out he decided to get into the burgeoning medical marijuana industry by taking the state-certified course in Colorado. "I always wanted to move back to Kelowna and this way I can do it with a business that's a first to Canada and can help people," said Schultz. The two-day medical marijuana seminar is Saturday and Sunday at the Best Western Inn. Register for $265 at GreenlineAcademy.com . - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.