A lawsuit, expensive pot, unpaid contractors and stalled projects are the harvest Nova Scotia has reaped from changes to the rules governing the cultivation and sale of medical marijuana.
In April 2014, Health Canada brought down rules meant to stop people with prescriptions for medical marijuana from growing their own. Instead, they would be required to buy from large producers licensed and regulated by the federal body.
This sparked a gold rush of venture capital racing toward medical marijuana proposals.
But despite the promises of a new industry for rural and small-town Nova Scotia, not a gram has been grown in this province under Health Canada’s new program.
“If I can grow medicinal marijuana for $3 a gram and be commercially viable at $5 a gram, then I would say these big businesses growing 10,000 plants are making a profit at $8.50 or $9 a gram,” William Brady said Tuesday.
“By handing it to the big companies, all they’ve done is created this rush of pigs to the trough.”
Brady and his wife grow three medical marijuana licences on their Antigonish County property.
A legal challenge to Health Canada’s plan to commercialize medical marijuana now winding its way through the Federal Court allows them to, at least temporarily, continue growing.
Meanwhile, work remains halted at the former Clairtone factory building in Stellarton that proponent Vida Cannabis was renovating into a 315,000- square-foot medical marijuana grow-op that would eventually produce 30,000 kilograms annually and employ up to 240 people.
Lindsay Construction, contrac-tor for the renovations, now holds a $6,390,823 mortgage on the large building, which sat empty for many years before Vida purchased it for $500,000 from the Town of Stellarton.
“Vida and many other licensed producer applicants are in this same boat — waiting for the Health Canada approval process,” was the only response Colin Trethewey, who works for a public relations firm hired by Vida, would provide after an interview request The Chronicle Herald recently made.
Then there’s the proposed medical marijuana grow-op in Ohio, Antigonish County.
Financial backer Matica Enterprises Inc. recently filed a lawsuit against proponent Frank MacMaster and his wife, Jennifer.
The Ontario investment firm alleges that MacMaster, an industrial electrician and farmer, secretly diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars provided by Matica away from renovating the former abattoir in Antigonish County into a medical marijuana grow-op.
MacMaster denied the allegations on Tuesday but said he couldn’t get into details while the matter is still before the courts.
“It’s lies,” he said. “They’re trying to take my farm.”
Meanwhile, contractors have gone unpaid.
Doug MacDonald estimates that his company, Nova Fence, and two other contractors that did work on the facility are out $300,000 to $400,000.
He doesn’t put the blame on MacMaster, but on Matica.
“This guy from Ontario (Matica chief executive officer Boris Ziger) stood in front of me and said ‘You guys will be paid,’” said MacDonald.
“That was about a year ago.”
For its part, Health Canada declined a request to provide a person to comment on the fallout of the rush by venture capital to get into the new industry it has created.
Health Canada also declined to provide a list of the proposed projects for Nova Scotia and where they now stand in its licensing process. According to its website, however, none of the 27 fully licensed medical marijuana production facilities are in Nova Scotia.
George McCarthy, a Halifax-area roofing contractor and proponent of a 52,000-square-foot grow-op in Woodside, said there are two main reasons for the existing problems.
The first, McCarthy said, was the rush to be the first out of the gate in the new industry.
He said project proponents spent significant money renovating buildings without a Health Canada licence.
“And the Conservative government wasn’t really forthcoming with the licences,” said McCarthy.
“Health Canada, in my opinion, was understaffed for the workload.”
He estimates he has spent $500,000 worth of his own capital and time in planning and preparing for his project. But McCarthy said he wouldn’t put money into renovations until he has a ready-to-build licence from Health Canada.
“With the (Justin) Trudeau, government things changed and we’ve heard Health Canada will give out licences faster,” said McCarthy.
“I’m thinking that if the government does legalize it, then production would go to the commercial operators.”
That is Brady’s concern.
In 2013, he was charged by Antigonish County RCMP with eight counts related to the growing, possession and selling of marijuana outside of Health Canada’s regulations.
With the federal Liberals’ campaign promise to legalize marijuana for recreational use, Brady doesn’t think Nova Scotians will benefit from handing it to big producers.
“They got rid of bootlegging by lengthening the hours that the liquor stores were open,” said Brady.
“If they want to get rid of the black market in marijuana, then let small guys like me grow it and sell it. We’d be happy to pay income taxes on it, and it could be a nice little industry for rural Nova Scotia.”
