Pubdate: Tue, 01 Nov 2016
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2016 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Mike Hager
Page: S1

MARIJUANA SEEDS PROVE PRICEY FOR GROWERS

Medical-marijuana patients won a court battle at the beginning of this
year allowing them to grow their own cannabis at home, but they have
no legal way to obtain the seeds or seedlings at an affordable price.

Ottawa tweaked its medical cannabis regime two months ago, after a
Federal Court ruling in February found the government was "over broad
and arbitrary" in banning home growing in favour of a mail-order
system supplied by a network of large commercial growers.

Now, B.C.-based Whistler Medical Marijuana Corp. is the only one of
more than 30 licensed commercial producers so far approved to sell
seeds or small plants - known as clones - to authorized clients.

But that company, which is still roughly two weeks away from mailing
such products, is charging $750 for its five-plant package and, as
result, will turn most aspiring home growers toward underground
producers or illegal online dispensaries, activists say.

Jason Wilcox, a cannabis advocate who oversaw the fundraising effort
to take the case to Federal Court, said he and his network of
activists will continue to direct those authorized to grow at home
away from the market regulated by Health Canada.

"Here in British Columbia I can supply similar genetics for $5 a
clone," Mr. Wilcox said. "The people have been supplied by the
underground for the past 80 years of reefer madness - they're the ones
that people are still relying on right now."

Chris Pelz, president of Whistler Medical Marijuana Corp., said
clients are paying an upfront fee for access to strains of organic
cannabis that the company has refined over dozens of grow cycles and
analyzed using independent laboratories. Plus, these clients can then
clone the plants to maintain their supply indefinitely, he said.

"These mums [mother plants] are held in laboratory conditions," Mr.
Pelz said of his products. "I don't know if the clones that are being
blasted out on the street are near the same quality of plant or
genetics that we offer."

So far, dozens of people have signed up to receive these plants, after
which they can buy other clones from Whistler for $20 each, he said.

He said his company, like many other commercial producers, has no
plans to sell seeds because they are in shorter supply.

"The red tape around acquiring seeds and having to import them is
quite onerous and certainly Health Canada is working really hard at
opening that up for licensed producers," he said.

A spokesperson for Health Canada was unable to comment late Monday on
the lack of seeds and plants available for sale.

Mr. Pelz said he expects other competitors to soon become licensed to
begin selling these starting materials.

Jordan Sinclair, a spokesman for Tweed Inc., part of Canada's biggest
chain of commercial growers, said Ottawa is likely working through
some of the same hurdles it faced in opening up the sale of edible
forms of the drug after losing another legal challenge in June of last
year.

Six months after that Supreme Court of Canada ruling, many patients
said they were having trouble obtaining the product legally because
only a handful of growers were selling and their inventory soon was
exhausted. The federal medical-marijuana program was initially
restricted to dried marijuana.

Mr. Sinclair could not say whether Tweed will be licensed to sell
seeds or clones soon, but said that the company is still interested in
allowing clients to grow their own plants at its Ontario-based facility.

He said he does not know how many crops a home grower will be able to
produce before the rules change once again when Ottawa introduces
legislation to legalize the recreational use and production of the
drug next spring.

"You're really looking at about 18 weeks for a single [growing and
curing] cycle," he said. "A couple cycles quickly turns into a year."

No one knows how many Canadians will eventually choose to grow their
own medicinal marijuana. Roughly 28,000 people are still covered by an
injunction allowing them to continue to produce cannabis for
themselves or another sick person, as they were licensed to under
Ottawa's old system.

Cannabis consultant and expert witness Eric Nash said upwards of 40
people have contacted him saying they have applied under the new
system to grow their own. Ultimately, he expects about the same
percentage of people who brew their own alcohol at home to apply to
grow cannabis if they are allowed to under the Liberal government's
coming rules.

"Certainly, cannabis in a lot of ways is a lot easier," he said.
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