Pubdate: Mon, 17 Oct 2016
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2016 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Series: http://news.nationalpost.com/features/o-cannabis
Pubdate: 17 Oct 2016
Author: Brian Hutchinson
Page: A2-A3

INSIDE THE GREEN RUSH

Denver's Pot Pioneers Have Some Advice For Canada As It Moves Into The 
Marijuana Market: Keep It Simple. Overregulation, They Warn, Could Doom 
The Effort.

John Lord steps from his SUV and into his giant cannabis factory, near
this city's deserted stockyards. Cattle once dominated commerce in the
Colorado capital, but marijuana is the prized commodity now.

Before Colorado voters defied the U. S. government's longstanding
cannabis prohibition and amended their state's constitution in 2012,
making the drug accessible to any local resident or visitor aged 21 or
older, Lord used the expansive warehouse to manufacture baby products.
His child car seats were sold in major retail stores, such as Walmart,
Target and Toys 'R' Us.

Now he's a pioneer in what's being hailed as a lucrative "green rush."
And he's got some advice for politicians and stakeholders in Canada,
in their efforts to legalize recreational pot: Keep the rules simple,
he says. Don't overregulate, or the whole effort might fail.

All over Denver, one notices the sweet, pungent fragrance of pot. It's
not always the smell of marijuana being smoked, either. It's the scent
of healthy, growing plants. After Colorado's recreational pot laws
came into effect in 2014, Denver became a major marijuana production
centre, with dozens of indoor growing operations.

Entrepreneurs have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into
raising bushels of high-potency pot. A transplanted New Zealander,
Lord grows what seems like an endless number of plants inside his
140,000-square foot facility. He won't divulge the precise number he
has under cultivation at any one time - that's a proprietary secret,
says the diminutive businessman - but he claims there are enough to
make his facility the largest licensed grow-operation in the United
States.

And it's still not big enough. Lord is planning to expand his
factory's footprint by another 70,000 square feet.

His is a vertically integrated, plant-to-sale operation. With the
help of some 500 employees, Lord grows and then processes his green
gold into dozens of different products. They range from perfectly
trimmed dried flower ( or "bud") to powerful concentrates such as oils
and wax, to cannabis-infused candies and chocolate. He is also making
cannabis vaporizers - the discreet, smokeless devices are considered
the new big thing in pot.

Lord's products are intended to give consumers a heady buzz or a
relaxing body stone, known among aficionados as "couch lock." Other
concoctions derived from specific marijuana strains are meant simply
to help induce sleep or relieve pain, without any psychotropic effects.

His privately owned company, LivWell Enlightened Health, sells its
homegrown cannabis from 14 retail stores it owns and operates in and
around Denver. It also offers wholesale cannabis and custom-label
"edibles" to retailers around t he state. LivWell's busiest shop, says
one of Lord's executives, sells US$200,000 worth of processed
marijuana every week.

"I underestimated the market when I first got involved," Lord says. "I 
had no idea how widespread cannabis use is in society." 
Other Denver-based entrepreneurs share the sentiment. A few
kilometres south of the LivWell facility sits a nondescript,
10,000-square-foot former mini-blinds factory. It's now a thriving
grow-operation, one of several in a stable co-owned by former high
school biology teacher Tim Cullen and Ralph Morgan, a former medical
device salesman.

Their cannabis venture, Colorado Harvest Company ( CHC), produces
almost 320 kilograms of high-grade marijuana every month. That's a
lot of pot, but not enough to supply their four retail stores in the
Denver area. The company has to buy wholesale marijuana from other
producers just to meet customer demand.

Cullen and Morgan have expanded their operations, and their horizons.
In addition to forming separate companies that produce high-potency
cannabis oils and vaporizer products, they are looking at further
expansion and investment opportunities. Annual revenues from all of
their operations grew 1,200 per cent in 2014, another 400 per cent
last year, and are now between $ 50 million and $100 million, says
Morgan. CHC has 80 employees, including five scientists with PhDs. And
they're just getting started.

Across the state, where the first legal, recreational marijuana stores 
opened on Jan. 1, 2014, revenues are exceeding almost everyone's 
expectations. In 2015, total revenues from Colorado's 432 licensed 
cannabis shops rang in at US$ 996 million. This year, that figure is 
expected to reach about $1.2 billion. State-imposed cannabis licence 
fees and levies amounted to $ 135 million last year, a decent return for 
taxpayers. 
But don't be seduced by the juicy figures. Running a successful,
plant-to-sale marijuana conglomerate, even in free-market Colorado,
is a high-risk, capital-intensive enterprise filled with legal
requirements and regulatory hurdles that keep changing.

Keeping in line with Colorado's marijuana laws is a costly headache,
Lord grumbles. "We employ 45 people in our compliance department
alone," he says. "Compliance regulations are the biggest barrier to
entry in this business, and the toughest on the small, mom-and-pop
operations. There have been 141 regulatory changes in the last year
alone."

Cullen agrees that the rules could be less onerous. "Legalization was
sold to voters ( during the 2012 ballot initiative) as something to be
regulated like alcohol," he says. "But it's not even close. The only
similarity is the 21 (years of age) minimum requirement for customers.
We have purchase limits, unlike alcohol, and pretty stringent
advertising, packaging and labelling restrictions. All of our
ingredients must be declared, including what's been sprayed on the
plant. The bar is set high."

Complicating matters even more is the state's two-tier system, one
for medical marijuana, the other for recreational pot.

The state legalized marijuana for medical use in 2009, and taxes that
product at a rate three times lower than the 22- percent rate applied
to recreational pot, at the retail end of the supply chain. And at all
times, during their cultivation, processing and sale, marijuana
intended for the medical and recreational markets must be kept separate.

Whatever their intended use, cannabis plants are notoriously high-
maintenance. Vulnerable to pests, mould and mildew, they require a
massive amount of care to reach their maximum buzz-worthiness.

"We're still learning how to improve something that people used to do 
secretly, hidden in a closet," Lord says. "And we're doing it on an 
industrial scale." 
At Lord's cannabis factory, everything starts in a petri dish. LivWell
uses a method of tissue culture to grow pot. Cannabis cells are
extracted from female, flower-producing plants - there are countless
varieties, or strains - and placed on a piece of gel. After one or two
weeks, the fledgling plant is transferred to a more robust growth
medium, a coconut fibre mulch, and then into a nursery. After more
time there, the potted plants are placed in a warm, humid and brightly
lit "spring" room.

There they are fed a proprietary solution of water and nutrients, and
receive light 24 hours a day.

Once the plants are ready to flower, they are moved to yet another
growing room, with heat and lighting systems set to mimic the cooler,
shorter days of late summer and autumn. Large buds begin to develop;
once they become full, solid and fragrant, it is time to harvest.

Over at CHC, the growing process is slightly different. The company
eschews tissue culture and starts with plant cuttings, also known as
clones. Like LivWell and every other licensed marijuana grower in
Colorado, all of CHC's plants have their roots in the black market.

"We had to start somewhere," shrugs Cullen. "The important thing is
that every plant that's grown now is in the regulated system."

Every marijuana plant and product meant for the medical and
recreational markets is taxed by the state, through every stage of
production. Manifesting allows regulators to keep close tabs on what
is produced, and on revenues generated through their sale.

"We have to keep track of every frickin' gram we produce," Lord
says.

Producers can also expect random visits from various officials, such as 
fire, building and insurance inspectors. Potrepreneurs such as Lord, 
Cullen and Morgan keep their facilities sparkling clean. Floors are 
bleach mopped every night, machinery is wiped down, and staff keep 
themselves tidy. 
It's the same story inside their retail operations. "Budtenders"
receive several weeks of training before they start work behind the
sales counter. They are expected to understand how their products
differ, according to their strain and potency. They are also trained
to give proper advice to customers looking for specific results.

Retail competition is fierce. Local zoning regulations determine where
recreational pot shops are located, which means they tend to cluster
in certain areas. Along a strip of Denver's busy S. Broadway corridor
south of the downtown core, for example, 17 pot shops are squeezed
into a mile-long strip. CHC's flagship store was among the first
shops to open on the Green Mile.

"There was a three-hour wait to get inside when we first opened in
January 2014," recalls Cullen.

In most stores, the selection is impressive, the budtenders courteous
and knowledgeable.

As for the customers, there are all kinds. In little more than two
years, Lord says, "marijuana has become normalized. I thought our
typical customer would be a 20- something guy. But it's a real melting
pot. You'll see a guy in a suit, then a guy in dreadlocks who will be
holding the door open for grandma."

There's something for everyone inside, he says. Lord lIkens his
product range to the sort of beverage products one might find in a
local liquor store. "From low-calorie soda to whisky, we've got it
covered."

*

WEED GONE BAD

Cold sweats, dizziness, nausea - and those are just the ill effects
suffered by some adult pot users.

When he arrived at a southern Ontario hospital emergency room, Cody
Morin was badly dehydrated and vomiting blood. He was rushed into
quarantine as doctors worried he was infected with the Ebola virus.
His father wasn't allowed at his bedside without wearing a haz-mat
suit.

Hours before, Morin was at his fiancee's Whitby, Ont., home after
work, where he smoked a bowl of pot, a daily routine for the
drywaller, accustomed to smoking at least four joints a day. Not long
afterward, he was overwhelmed by cold sweats, dizziness and nausea. He
vomited uncontrollably for about two hours before his fiancee drove
him to hospital in nearby Oshawa.

The agony was familiar. Morin had been in and out of hospital for
several years with similar bouts, which lasted for six hours at times.

"You instantly feel light-headed, like you're going to pass out, and
your stomach starts spinning like crazy," Morin said. "I was so
dehydrated (from vomiting) when I went to the hospital they couldn't
stick an IV in my arm because my veins kept collapsing."

Mercifully, as Morin lay in isolation during the horrific episode in
late 2014, doctors brought in a stomach specialist who gave him the
diagnosis that would ultimately relieve his misery - he had
cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome.

Scientists don't know what causes the condition, but they believe
avoiding marijuana is the only cure, said Dr. Andrew Monte, an
assistant professor at the University of Colorado's school of medicine
who has studied the syndrome.

Morin initially balked at the diagnosis, having smoked for well over a
decade, but he watched his symptoms disappear after he stayed off
marijuana. Now, he has discovered other pot smokers who endured
similar torment.

Emergency rooms at two Colorado hospitals have seen a doubling in the
rate of patients with cyclical vomiting syndromes such as cannabinoid
hyperemesis, said Monte, who believes the spike is largely due to the
legalization of marijuana. Hospitals across Colorado see several new
cases every week.

The growing prevalence of the debilitating condition was among several
unexpected health effects of legalizing pot for medicinal and, later,
recreational use, he said.

Monte said the most concerning unexpected health effects have involved
children who consume marijuana, mostly in edible products, by
accident. Pot is often sold in chocolates, candies and other goodies.
In the five years before medicinal pot was legalized, the Children's
Hospital Colorado had not treated any youngsters for mistakenly
ingesting marijuana. In the second year of medical legalization, there
were 14 cases.

Across the state, the rate of children younger than nine being
hospitalized for possible marijuana exposure has increased
dramatically, according to a public health committee that has been
measuring the impact of legalization in Colorado. There was roughly
one case for every 100,000 hospitalizations in Colorado from 2001 to
2009, the initial period of medical legalization. The rate spiked to
13 cases per 100,000 in 2014 through to June 2015, the first year and
a half of retail legalization.

Children who eat marijuana candy bars or cookies can develop pneumonia
from a depressed central nervous system. Their heart rate can double
normal levels to 200 beats per minute. They can become comatose.

"A hundred milligrams in an adult may cause some hallucinations, may
cause their heart rate to go very fast, which may be a risk, but it's
a risk in a subset of patients," Monte said. "Every single pediatric
patient shouldn't have 100 milligrams, and that's really only one cookie."

Monte said edible products should not be sold in retail pot shops,
given the health risks. According to his research, edibles are behind
most health care visits due to marijuana intoxication, for patients of
all ages. Concentrations of THC in these products can vary wildly,
while the effects can take hours to fully kick in.

Marijuana has medicinal properties and is often prescribed for a long
list of ailments, such as chronic pain, nausea linked to cancer
chemotherapy, insomnia and depressed mood associated with chronic
diseases, and pain due to multiple sclerosis.

Overconsumption, however, can lead to increased anxiety, rapid heart
rates, high blood pressure and vomiting, among other symptoms that
land users in emergency departments.

A review of scientific literature on the health effects of marijuana
use found substantial evidence that pot smoke contains many of the
carcinogens that are in tobacco smoke, and that heavy pot smoking is
linked to bronchitis, including chronic cough and wheezing.

The literature review, conducted by Colorado's public health
committee, found adolescent and young adult users are at higher risk
of developing psychotic symptoms or disorders in adulthood.

In Canada, public health officials have a better chance of reducing
these and other harms by legalizing and regulating marijuana than by
keeping it in the illicit market, said Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, medical
health officer at Vancouver Coastal Health.

"We'll know what's in it and how it's grown, what the strength is, and
the product will be labelled. We' ll know who made it, who sold it,"
Lysyshyn said, adding regulations should also include childproof
packaging and other steps to keep pot away from children.

"If there are problematic products out there, then we'll have them
withdrawn off the market. People used to go blind from drinking
moonshine; that doesn't happen anymore. We have to get safe products
out there that people can use safely."
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MAP posted-by: Matt