MEDICAL POT DEMAND GROWS

Local Firm Signs Contract Extension With Gov't

The federal Conservative government may have slashed research funding
into medical marijuana earlier this month, but Prairie Plant Systems
Inc., the Saskatoon company that has the contract to grow pot for
approved medical users, has not been affected.

In fact, company president Brent Zettl says a one-year extension of
the contract to grow the marijuana at a secure underground growth
chamber located in a Flin Flon mine was signed Oct. 1. The contract
calls for a doubling of the volume for the coming year and more
revenue for his company.

"At this stage of the game we're supplying about 300 to 325 people on
a monthly basis who have an exemption for medicinal purposes who have
a medical condition that grants them that exemption." The number of
patients gaining that exemption is growing, so the legal medical
marijuana program is now close to running out of supply, he said.

"We're shipping out somewhere between 32 and 35 kilograms a month and
we currently produce about 20," he said.

Zettl says the one-year extension of the federal contract will
provide revenues of $2.1 million to Prairie Plant Systems compared to
an original base contract of $1.1 million.

"From our standpoint, it's also a signal to the rest of the country
that the product is being accepted and it is being taken up by
patients who find it beneficial," he said. "It's a statement."

In the first year of the contract, some of the pot produced had a
much higher tetrahydrocannibol (THC) level than the federal program
wanted, because Prairie Plant's original seed source was pot seized
by police. However, Zettl said his company is now consistently
producing marijuana to meet contract requirements with a THC level of
12.5 per cent (plus or minus 1.5 per cent).

"In our case, it has to meet the quality control test," he said.

In an interview at the opening ceremonies of the new head office and
laboratory building for Prairie Plant, located off Highway 16 about
three kilometres east of Boychuk Drive, Zettl said the contract to
grow medical marijuana has raised his company's profile and been
successful in giving his firm a "segue into the plant-made
pharmaceutical industry as a whole."