MMPR Grow op: Small Scale

djfili said:

CndSimon, are you still interested I cooperating with other small producers? I am in the process of submitting my application and would like to connect with other small growers as well.

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torontomeds said:

Koot for PM. lol

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Cashing in on pot - A corporation. A family farm. Two views on the coming boom in medical marijuana -BY JEREMY WARREN, THE STARPHOENIX

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Come harvest time at Saskatoon's CanniMed Ltd., six employees wearing masks and gloves crowd around a short conveyor belt handpicking stems from mounds of dried marijuana as the product is pushed into a large, clear plastic bag. It's not a common site anywhere in Canada, and to see it is a revelation of industrial marijuana production. It's also one of 281 points of quality control CanniMed's parent company, Prairie Plant Systems (PPS), developed in its 13 years of supplying Health Canada with medical marijuana. CanniMed grows medical marijuana for several thousand of Canada's licensed patients. It's location cannot be disclosed, but it is a short drive out of Saskatoon. Once grown deep in a Manitoba mine, the company's marijuana is produced and processed in industrial greenhouses not out of place among the farm implement dealers and industrial sites between Saskatoon and its bedroom communities. The company also grows three varieties of saskatoon berries. On April 1, new Health Canada rules will allow a handful of companies to start producing marijuana for licensed patients. The change was meant to replace the old system of thousands of home-based licensed producers, which Health Canada and law enforcement argue is open to abuse. But a recent court injunction allows current licence holders to continue to possess and grow marijuana under the old regulations while a lawsuit works its way to trial. Until the legal battle ends, the old and new rules will coexist, providing Canada an interesting test of the two systems through which patients get their medicine. Where some entrepreneurs and investors see potential revenue streams - $1.3 billion by 2024, according to Health Canada - many patients see a restriction of choice and their right to cheap medicine. CanniMed CEO and president Brent Zettl also sees a marketing problem. An estimated 22,000 licensed patients grow their own cannabis or buy from other licence holders who are allowed to grow for a small number of patients, while PPS supplied another several thousand. Zettl says the company will be ready to supply 25,000 patients by June, but his product is not without its critics. "Our competition was blind to us. We were the only ones who had to follow quality-control regulations," Zettl said in his office, two weeks before Health Canada's regulations take effect. He explains PPS could only grow one strain under the old rules while patients could test as many strains from homebased growers as they wish, and until recently it was forbidden to advertise or speak publicly about its product. On his office desk, Zettl sets down brightly coloured bottle labels for the company's new strains, four on offer and two in development, all of varying THC strengths. "Having to be bound by one product, one size for the entire country, how do you turn it around? One customer at a time." Customers, patients, users - read and talk enough about medical marijuana in Canada and you'll see licence holders are referred to as all three. You'll hear more about them in the coming years. The federal government expects up to 450,000 people to have medical licences by 2024, or about 10 times the current market. Where there is demand, there are people hoping to supply it. Health Canada's new Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) has licensed almost a dozen growers to date, including Ontario-based Tweed, which is renovating an old Hershey's chocolate factory into a grow operation. In Saskatchewan, an asyet-unlicensed company hopes to buy a school in small-town Milden and turn it into a grow operation employing dozens of locals. CanniMed opened its Saskatoon-area grow operation in 2011. One building is filled with administrative offices and laboratories. The actual growing happens in nondescript buildings separate from the administrative offices and research labs. To get in, one must shower on-site and put on coveralls to prevent contamination of the product. Inside the grow facility are six chambers holding up to 1,000 plants each. Surfaces are spotless white or shiny metal. Security on site is tight - retired police officers greet visitors and patrol the grounds. Zettl is reluctant to talk specifics about security and is careful about what gets photographed. The operation is similar to what companies across Canada are doing to meet Health Canada's regulations - security cameras, vaults, quality control measures fit for pharmaceutical manufacturers. Another application before Health Canada involves four young brothers who bought 80 acres of land an hour's drive from Saskatoon to start a non-profit operation called McLachlan Family Cannabis Farms, catering to patients with severe medical ailments and tight budgets. At the family farm, Chad McLachlan, 28, walks into "the barn," the under-construction facility the brothers and their father are building in a secluded wooded area with the hope of becoming a licensed producer. When finished, the place will house a lab area, production and processing equipment, showers, a vault and offices. For now, the mostly empty 7,000-square-foot building houses a television, video games system and a room of marijuana plants they're maintaining to preserve favourite strains. "They all have their unique medical qualities," McLachlan said, pointing to marijuana strains originating in Mexico, Nepal, Vietnam and Afghanistan. "People have struggled for the right to use this and that's a personal cause ... In 20 years, cannabis will be as ubiquitous as coffee, tea, whatever." The brothers are turning to online crowdfunding to equip a 12,000-square-foot glass greenhouse. Their operation is a throwback to Saskatchewan's agrarian roots, collective-minded and political. The McLachlans plan to meet all the requirements in Health Canada's new regulations for producers, who must adhere to strict security and reporting measures. But they want to offer their dried marijuana at $1.50 to $2.50 per gram, below the $7 to $11 per gram cost many other companies, CanniMed included, say they need to be viable. In McLachlan's ideal world, sick people aren't prevented from growing their own, or at least small family run operations are free to compete against the large-scale corporations. The landscape will be shaped by how many producer licences Health Canada grants to meet demand. "There is an insane amount of profit in growing cannabis and it's because of prohibition," McLachlan said when asked about Health Canada's estimate the medical marijuana industry will eventually be worth $1.3 billion. For now, the McLachlans grow cannabis for one licensed patient under the old rules. They envision initially supplying 100 to 200 patients based on a five gram per day prescription. "If you can grow a plant in a greenhouse legally, the price should reflect that. The cost for a producer isn't the cannabis - it's the wages and everything above." Back near Saskatoon at CanniMed headquarters, Zettl won't reveal the company's current and projected profits. He says the company has exceeded financial forecasts five years running. Just before the April 1 change to new rules, CanniMed announced it has the resources to immediately supply an extra 10,000 patients, moving up its projected expansion by several months. The demand is there and suppliers are eager. But Zettl doesn't believe medical marijuana will quickly become a billion-dollar industry, and rejects the idea the changes herald a new "green rush" of pot pioneers. "How many people really made it in the gold rush?" Zettl said. "Very few." [email protected] Twitter.com/jjwrrn By the numbers Number of licensed users in 2001: 85 Estimated number of licensed users in 2014: 35,000 to 42,000 Expected number of licensed users in 2024: 450,000 Estimated number of legal growers: 22,000 Health Canada approved growers after April 1: 11 (so far) Estimated number of plants current patients are allowed to grow: 3,500,000 Estimated taxable annual revenue of medical cannabis industry in 2024: $1,300,000,000 Cost per gram of medical marijuana CanniMed says it needs to be viable: about $7 to $11 Cost per gram the McLachlan family wants to do it for: up to $2.50

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