HYDROPONIC SYSTEM A MEDICINAL POTBOILER

A new Montreal company promises to take the guesswork out of growing your
own marijuana.

The Power Grow system is idiot-proof, efficient - and perfectly legit. The
product is being marketed as a safe, efficient system for Canadians who
have the federal government's blessing to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Health Canada has established a "compassionate framework" that allows
patients suffering from serious illnesses to relieve their pain with
marijuana. There is a licensing process, during which patients supply
information on their ailments and indicate whether they plan to grow their
own marijuana or have someone grow it for them.

In 12 months since the introduction of the Marijuana Medical Access
Regulations, more than 800 Canadians have received permission for
therapeutic drug use. There are three legal ways for licensed marijuana
users to obtain the drug. They can get it from the government, they can
grow their own or they can designate a grower.

The feds predictably have made a hash of growing marijuana. An attempt to
set up a government pot plantation in an abandoned mine in Manitoba was
aborted and the plants were destroyed.

Private enterprise thinks it can do the job better. Power Grow, a company
based in British Columbia, manufactures and sells hydroponic units that
turn out primo weed without use of pesticides, herbicides or half the back
yard.

Two 20something Montrealers, Frederick Robson and Marie-Christine
Deschamps, are partners in HydroMedic. They're the distributors, in Quebec
and Atlantic Canada, of Power Grow aluminum units that include fluorescent
lights, a watering system and ventilation equipment.

They're a bit larger than a refrigerator. Each holds about a dozen
marijuana plants in various stages of growth. Plants can be harvested every
six to eight weeks, yielding up to 1.5 pounds.

It's called hydroponic agriculture. The technology was developed in Israel,
where water and arable soil are at a premium.

It's a long way from the Middle East to the Eastern Townships - and
marijuana is a more lucrative cash crop than Jaffa oranges.

In Sutton and vicinity, the RCMP recently busted a hydroponic pot-growing
operation. Illicit growers were exporting 225 kilos of cannabis to the U.S.
every week. Last week, a raid in Roxboro shut down a hydroponic plantation
in a private home. Cops seized 480 marijuana plants.

During a press conference at a downtown hotel yesterday during which they
displayed Power Grow units, Robson and Deschamps were asked whether they'd
want to see Health Canada licenses to use pot before selling a Power Grow unit.

"Our responsibility ends with the sale and after-sales service," Robson
said. "We are selling a legal product."

Like rolling papers - only packages of Zig-Zag don't cost $4,500.

"It's ideal for marijuana, but you could also grow plants or vegetables,"
Deschamps added, with a straight face. Like anyone's going to spend almost
five grand to grow zucchini.

You could rig up a chaise longue and get a decent winter tan in your Power
Grow. But let's be serious: this is a machine that does a very nice job of
growing an illegal drug.

And there is nothing to prevent a criminal from buying Power Grow. He can
pull a tractor-trailer up to the warehouse on Monk Blvd. and drive off with
HydroMedic's entire inventory of hydroponic appliances.

"Yeah, sure, pal. I got the cancer real bad. I'll need 20 of these."

But drug dealers tend to be adept with pocket calculators - or, in the case
of full-patch tycoons, Palm Pilots. And the units that HydroMedic is
selling do not yield commercially viable quantities of marijuana.

The way Robson crunches the numbers, however, Power Grow is a good buy for
a medicinal pot licensee. Robson hypothesized that a patient consumes an
ounce of marijuana a week, $200 to $250 at prevailing street prices.

"The unit will pay for itself in four to five months," he said.

Robson, who is a designated marijuana grower for a patient whom he wouldn't
identify, said he's been using the system for three months. He describes
Power Grow as a "turn-key" appliance. You flick the switch and hydroponic
agriculture does the rest. All the grower has to do is refill the water
reservoir and check pH levels.

Turn it on and - well, you complete the cheap joke.

Marc-Boris St-Maurice of the Marijuana Party offered an unsolicited
testimonial, calling Power Grow a very good product with "enormous
potential." St-Maurice, who advocates legalization, said the government
should subsidize medicinal users' purchase of the units.

HydroMedic offers everything the home pot farmer needs - except seeds.
Robson said marijuana seeds are easily obtainable from stores he wouldn't
name and Internet Web sites he would not identify.

HydroMedic hopes to sell 50 units during its first year of operation.
Robson said he hopes to create a network among doctors, patients and
medicinal marijuana growers.

Business will boom if and when the government finally decriminalizes
marijuana and allows cultivation for personal use. Power Grow units will
move faster than fridges - and Robson and Deschamps will become the Brault
& Martineau of hydroponic home appliances.

- - There's more information on the Power Grow system at the HydroMedic Web
site, www.hydromedic.com. The phone number of Health Canada's Office of
Cannabis Medical Access is (866) 337-7705. The office's Web site is
www.hc-sc.gc.ca.