ROCK GOES UNDERGROUND TO ADMIRE FIRST POT GARDEN

FLIN FLON, MAN. -- Like a proud farmer admiring a bumper crop, Health
Minister Allan Rock was all smiles yesterday as he went deep underground to
tour Canada's only legal marijuana-growing operation.

Wearing blue coveralls and a miner's helmet, Rock and his entourage boarded
a vehicle that slowly snaked down through the dark silence of an old
copper-mine shaft to a bustling hydroponic lab carved out of the rock
hundreds of metres below the surface.

There, under tight security and the blinding glare of powerful grow lights,
a forest of vibrant green plants burst from containers, filling the chamber
with a musky sweetness.

"It's an incredible experience to see this operation," Mr. Rock said as he
watched expert growers wearing white sterile suits gingerly handle the
plants that will provide the roots of Canada's new medicinal-marijuana
policy. "It's obvious that we have good growth. I'm quite impressed."

During a brief ceremony, employees unveiled a sign that named the grow
operation the Rock Garden, in the minister's honour.

After returning to the surface, Mr. Rock cut a gold ribbon at the entrance
of the mine tunnel as he stood beside an RCMP officer in full dress
uniform. "Let's open this mine and get the plants to patients as soon as we
can," Mr. Rock said.

Within weeks, technicians at the site 650 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg
will begin harvesting the bedrock buds for tests to determine their potency
and other chemical properties.

After clinical trials, the marijuana will be made available as early as
February to the terminally ill and people suffering from serious diseases
who want to use it as a pain reliever -- if they qualify.

The medicinal-marijuana policy, which came into effect on Monday, allows
people who have been granted an exemption from narcotics laws to possess
pot and grow it or have someone grow it for them. Fewer than 300 people
have been approved but there are 500 applications pending.

Critics claim the exemptions are too restrictive, that the mine won't
produce enough pot to meet demand and that the pot won't be strong enough
to deaden the pain of people suffering from AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

Others say the operation, run under contract by Prairie Plant Systems of
Saskatoon, is a $5.7-million absurdity, when most Canadians can easily buy
pot in their own communities.

Mr. Rock said that when a government launches a groundbreaking policy,
there are bound to be problems. "I don't pretend they are perfect. We can
adapt and adjust these regulations to overcome problems that arise."

The mine has generated international headlines and has prompted some groups
to hold Canada's policy up as an example that other governments should follow.

In the United States, where an offender can be jailed for as much as a year
for possession of a joint and five years for growing a plant, the
pro-marijuana lobby groups praised Ottawa.

Flin Flon's residents don't know what to make of all the attention their
community of 7,000 is receiving.

For 75 years their fortunes have been dictated by the fluctuating price of
ore processed by the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co.

Mayor Dennis Ballard said that so far the marijuana mine has created only
about a dozen jobs and most of the profits will flow out of the area. But
he is convinced that could change.

But some long-time Flin Flon residents scoff at the idea that there is much
of a future in underground marijuana growing.

Gordon Wells and his pal Rod Rutherford chuckled over their coffee at
Johnny's Confectionery when asked if the pot mine will help Flin Flon.
"It's just a big fuss over nothing," Mr. Wells said. "Everybody just laughs
about it."