Pubdate: Sat, 23 Aug 2014
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2014 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Brian Hutchinson
Page: A5

POT'S NEW PUSHERS

Former police, mayors and senior government politicians are jumping on
the weed wagon to promote and advise start-ups

Seeking to profit from Canada's new medical marijuana regulations -
which put the production and sale of high-grade weed into the hands of
corporations and penny-stock outfits - promoters are turning to former
police chiefs and prominent politicians to help sell their products
and attract mom and pop investors.

But he was just named advisor to Vodis Innovative Pharmaceuticals
Inc., a Vancouver-based, publicly traded company that hopes to obtain
a Health Canada licence to sell high-quality marijuana to medical patient
s.

Joining him on the Vodis advisory board is Senator Larry Campbell, a
former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and Vancouver mayor.

As with all things marijuana, British Columbia is a hotbed of
penny-stock pot promotion.

The two men may disagree on marijuana reform - Mr. Campbell
wholeheartedly endorses legalization, while Mr. Reynolds is more
cautious - but they have similar roles as corporate cannabis advisors.

They believe they can help Vodis organize its affairs and compete with
other marijuana start-ups and established companies.

The company's young executives might know plenty about growing potent
bud, but they "don't know s-t from shinola about business," says Mr.
Campbell. That's why he signed on, he adds: To help them with
corporate regulations, audits and security matters. In exchange for
his counsel, he received purchase options on about 250,000 Vodis shares.

For his part, Mr. Reynolds thinks he can help Vodis with disclosure
requirements and public outreach, such as engaging with the
communities where the company hopes to grow its marijuana. But he
insists he won't lobby.

"I don't make calls to government," he says. "I'm just being an
advisor. I do that for a lot of companies. If they are willing to pay
what I charge, I'll do it."

Vodis is just one of many upstarts in the medical marijuana business,
which is still in its infancy in Canada, but expected to grow by leaps
and bounds, thanks to the country's new Marijuana for Medical Purposes
Regulations (MMPR), introduced in April.

The new regulatory regime is meant to divert medical marijuana
production from thousands of independent home grows and black-market
operations to secure, inspected facilities run by law-abiding companies.

To date, Health Canada has granted MMPR production licences to 22
operations, from Moncton, N.B., to Vancouver Island. For arcane
privacy-related reasons that even Health Canada spokesmen cannot
decipher, only 13 licencee holders have been publicly identified; of
those, just a handful are now producing and selling marijuana to customer
s.

Others are waiting for federal bureaucrats to inspect and approve
their products. Dozens more companies are waiting for their MMPR
applications to be reviewed.

Health Canada has already predicted the number of Canadians authorized
to possess marijuana for medical use will increase almost tenfold in
the next decade, to about 309,000, as more evidence about the drug's
efficacy emerges and more doctors become willing to prescribe it to
patients.

It estimates by 2024, the "legal marijuana supply industry" may be
worth $1.3-billion.

"It's going to be like when they found [different uses for] Aspirin,"
says Mr. Campbell, from his home on Galiano Island, one of B.C.'s Gulf
Islands. "It's going to be unbelievable."

Mike Harcourt , a former B.C. premier, jumped into the competitive
fray this year, becoming chairman of Vernon, B.C.-based True Leaf
Medicine Inc., yet another putative marijuana provider.

True Leaf hopes to go public and list shares on a stock exchange soon,
he says. He explains he was at first reluctant to get involved with
the company, but after doing "a lot of reading," his "thinking kind of
evolved." In May, he agreed to join True Leaf's board.

Despite enduring chronic pain and partial quadriplegia, from which he
has suffered since a near-fatal fall off a cottage deck 12 years ago,
Mr. Harcourt says he doesn't consume cannabis at all.

Other public figures entering the medicinal weed business include:
Kash Heed, a former West Vancouver police chief and B.C. solicitor
general, who acts as a consultant for several hopeful marijuana
producers; and Barry Daniel, a former Abbotsford police chief.

Mr. Daniel describes himself as a law enforcement "traditionalist" who
years ago would have scoffed at the idea of working with marijuana
growers.

"But over time, and watching things unfold =C2=85 I changed my mind," he
says. "To be frank, I think [marijuana for recreational use] should be
decriminalized."

In his new incarnation, he will work as Wildflower's head of
security.

Like many other marijuana newcomers, the company is tapping public
markets. William MacLean, its chief executive, helped execute a
reverse takeover of a moribund resource-based company this year. As a
result, Wildflower grabbed a spot on the Canadian Stock Exchange,
where penny stocks are bought and sold.

Mr. MacLean hopes to at - tract enough capital to build a
14,000-square-foot marijuana production facility near Nanaimo, on
Vancouver Island.

It's a very speculative play; at this point, the company does not even
own an MMPR licence. Even if it were to receive federal approval to
grow and sell pot, there's no guarantee Wildflower will make money for
its investors. Best listen to Mr. Reynolds, the conservative
politician turned marijuana advisor. Sinking money into a marijuana
company "is gambling," he says. "Be very careful."
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MAP posted-by: Matt