U OF C POPPY CROP SEEDS OPIUM STUDY

Peter Facchini is neither a drug lord nor an addict -- but a quick glance
at his resume might suggest otherwise.

As the keeper of a small garden of opium poppies in an unmarked basement
room at the University of Calgary, the 38-year-old Facchini has a small
stash that might make a junkie's eyes glaze over.

Under 16-hour-a-day bright lights, 80 per cent humidity and 26 C
temperatures of a growth chamber -- it looks like a big, green refrigerator
but produces the opposite effect -- Facchini tends to his crop of the
morphine-producing plants.

But as a plant cell biologist, biochemist, geneticist, molecular biologist
and phytochemist, the researcher is intently focused on his plants and the
potential they have in the legal world. His groundbreaking work has won
international notice and national financial support.

"I'd like to see the Prairies covered by opium poppies," said a slightly
hesitant Facchini. "Well, maybe not covered, but this could be a new crop
alternative."

Facchini wants to isolate the opium poppy's enzyme-encoded genes,
understand the 18 or so metabolic stages from beginning to codeine and then
on to morphine, and then alter that process. In the end, he may wind up
giving opium poppies a better reputation.

"It is very valuable as a legitimate medicinal plant, but it is also used
for the illegal production of heroin, so by blocking the synthesis of the
molecule at certain stages, it could be developed into a new weapon in the
war on drugs," said Facchini.

"Now you would have a variety that is not only more valuable commercially
- -- because you're avoiding a chemical step -- but you also have a variety
that avoids the possibility of converting morphine into heroin.

"In the form of codeine, it would be much more difficult to produce heroin."

Facchini's research could allow scientists to customize the pathway,
possibly producing plants with more morphine. Or by stopping the process at
codeine, the opium poppy could even become a Wild Rose Country crop, he
suggested.

The metabolic engineering Facchini proposes may help de-stigmatize opium
poppies as a crop for drug lords. Instead, it could deliver the poppies
into the legal hands of Alberta farmers, provided the right, genetically
altered variety are used, our laws have been amended and the public's
anti-opium plant stance has changed.

Extensive competition for commodity crops such as wheat around the world
have put Alberta farmers behind the eight-ball. Countries such as Argentina
and China can produce crops far cheaper than farmers in Canada, he said.

With two per cent of all prescriptions filled in North America containing
either morphine or codeine, a thriving market is there for the taking.

And as the largest per capita consumers of codeine in the world, Facchini
said Canadians are a homegrown customer base for our farmers.

Canada gets most of its supplies of morphine and codeine from Australia and
France, where opium poppies are grown legally.

Facchini's research has garnered international attention. He recently
returned from France, where he is working with other researchers.

In November, the federal government awarded him a Canada Research Chair
worth $1 million over the next 10 years. With that money, Facchini's salary
will be covered and other money can be used to upgrade his large lab on the
third floor of the biological sciences building at the university.

Six research students work with Facchini, who hopes to add about two more
senior researchers in the next year.

The soft-spoken academic is quick to note he has a permit to grow the
plants from the federal government.

He began studying the plant 10 years ago during his post-doctoral research
at the University of Montreal. Facchini's supervisor handed him a jar full
of the opium poppy seeds and told him to clone one of its genes, which had
never been done.

He accomplished the task, becoming the first person to clone the gene
involved with morphine biosynthesis, and there was no turning back.

Today, there is only one other lab in the world trying to understand the
alkaloid synthesis of the opium plant.

"It's good to be known in a research area that's controversial," said
Facchini. "Well, not exactly controversial, but it grabs people's attention."