Pubdate: Tue, 03 Jun 2014
Source: West Central Tribune (Willmar, MN)
Copyright: 2014 Forum Communications Company
Contact:  http://www.wctrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/542
Author: Tom Cherveny
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - U.S.)

WILL STATE'S FIRST MEDICAL MARIJUANA FACILITY BE IN MONTEVIDEO?

Entrepreneur Behind Proposal Driven by Child's Urgent Need

MONTEVIDEO -- No sooner had Governor Mark Dayton signed the bill 
legalizing medical marijuana in Minnesota than Jeremy Pauling was 
lining up support to build the first facility to produce it in Montevideo.

"I was brought up not to sit on my hands," said Pauling.

There's another reason for his urgency. His seven year-old-daughter 
Katelyn suffers chronic seizures due to Batten Disease. It's an 
inherited and fatal neurological disease.

Doctors have given her a life expectancy of possibly 10 to 12 years. 
Pauling said he and his wife, Kristy, are committed to doing all they 
can to ease her suffering.

Along with their daughter, they were regulars at the state 
Legislature this session, testifying and advocating for the bill that 
Gov. Dayton signed May 29.

It calls for the development of two facilities to manufacture medical 
marijuana, as well as eight distribution sites to be located 
geographically about the state.

In a two-day time frame, Pauling secured resolutions from the City of 
Montevideo and Chippewa County supporting the proposal to develop a 
manufacturing facility. Pauling believes the proposal is the first in 
the state to obtain local government support.

The city has already offered a site for the facility on its east side.

Pauling hopes the early approval will help make the facility a 
possibility in Montevideo. At this point, he knows of 10 different 
parties who have contacted the Minnesota Department of Health 
expressing interest in developing a facility.

"We're in the planning stages right now," said Pauling. If the 
proposal gets the state nod, he said it would be critical to get 
construction underway by late August. The new state law allows the 
first medical marijuana to be administered under prescription on July 1, 2015.

Pauling is a sales associate with J & D Construction, a family 
business started in 1980 in the back of a pickup truck by his father, 
Jerry, and his partner, Doug Nelson. The company builds and erects 
grain storage facilities across much of the country.

It's known locally most of all by its headquarters and manufacturing 
facility located west of Montevideo on U.S. Highway 212. Since 2006, 
a 500,000 bushel capacity grain bin that is super-insulated and 
heated and cooled by a geo-thermal system has housed its offices and 
central operations.

Pauling said his father has taken on the challenge of determining 
what a Montevideo facility for growing and manufacturing medical 
marijuana might look like. While it may seem novel, the science 
behind it is well known, said Pauling.

A variety of marijuana strains would be raised indoors in a secure 
facility. The plants produce different cannabinoid oils, which are 
extracted for medical use.

The medical marijuana would be available in the form of pills or as a 
liquid that would be vaporized.

Pauling said the cannabinoid extract that he believes will help his 
daughter is known as Charlotte's Web. It's named for Charlotte Figi, 
who gained national fame when her parents and physicians successfully 
lobbied for its use to ease her epileptic seizures.

The extracted, cannabinoid oil does not provide a high, he said.

The Pauling's have not administered the extract to their daughter, 
but have friends who moved to Colorado to obtain medical marijuana 
for their child. Pauling said he and his wife, who is a registered 
nurse, had also considered moving to a state where medical marijuana 
is available.

They decided instead to fight for the cause in Minnesota. They did 
not want to leave the support system of family and friends they have 
in Montevideo for their daughter and her sisters, Kaylee and Kassey, 
he explained.

Pauling said the Montevideo facility being contemplated would create 
30 to 40 new jobs, many of them laboratory technicians. The state 
estimates that the Minnesota facilities would provide medical 
marijuana for 5,000 or more people afflicted with the diseases for 
which it is approved.

Pauling believes the actual number could prove to be much higher once 
facilities are operating. He sees the current legislation as a 
stepping stone. Ultimately, he believes legislators will allow 
medical marijuana to be prescribed for a greater array of diseases.

A state task force is now working with the Department of Health to 
implement Minnesota's new law. There is no way to know whether the 
Montevideo proposal will emerge as one of the two chosen sites, but 
Pauling is confident of this much. Montevideo is right for it.

"It really makes you feel good to have a community get behind you 
with something that is so taboo, let us say," he said. Pauling said 
the community's response has been straight-forward: "What can we do to help?"

"We get that in small town Minnesota," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom