CANADA'S FIRST LEGAL MARIJUANA FARM THRIVES UNDERGROUND

FLIN FLON, Manitoba (AP) - Growing marijuana is an underground
industry, especially for the Canadian government.

Deep in the earth of northern Manitoba, in an old copper mine turned
underground greenhouse, 3,000 pot plants are being grown for Canada's
newly expanded medical marijuana program.

The plants, nurtured by Prairie Plant Systems of Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan under a five-year $3.7 million government contract, are
thriving in the controlled subsurface environment of Canada's first
legal marijuana farm.

Health Minister Allan Rock went down for a look Thursday and said the
43-day-old plants were almost as tall as he is - six feet.

Court decisions cleared the way for medical marijuana in Canada, Rock
said, as well as an efficient, legal supply chain. So, he contracted
Prairie Plant Systems to grow government-regulated marijuana for
distribution to qualifying patients and for medical research.

As a lawyer and former justice minister, Rock said he could have
delayed the implementation of the court rulings for decades.

"That was not the right thing to do. The right thing to do was to
make (medical marijuana) available," he said after his tour. "We have
medical morphine and medical heroin, why not medical marijuana?"

Prairie Plants operations in other abandoned mines, including one in
Michigan, have shown how plants thrive underground, where
temperatures are stable and variables such as light and nutrients can
be controlled.

The Trout Lake mine near Flin Flon is a bustling hydroponics lab
carved out of the rock hundreds of yards below the surface.

Under tight security and the glare of powerful grow lights, the
plants fill the chamber with a musky, sweet odor.

"It's an incredible experience to see this operation," Rock said of
the underground operation named in his honor as the Rock Garden.

Once the company harvests its first crop in October, the Canadian
government will inaugurate a distribution system for patients with
terminal illnesses or serious conditions including severe arthritis.
Rock said details for distribution still need to be worked out and
could include using doctors or pharmacies.

Flin Flon Mayor Dennis Ballard was thankful for the publicity the
marijuana mine has brought the city of 7,000, even if it comes with
"humor and some controversy."

A local shop, the Zig Zag Zone, has sold nearly 10,000 T-shirts
touting Flin Flon as the "Marijuana Capital of Canada."

Prairie Plant president Brent Zettl hailed the project as the
beginning of a new "biological era" in technology, where production
of pharmacological plants can move beyond laboratories.

Rock said other countries already have expressed interest in learning
more about the expanded Canadian medical marijuana program that took
effect Monday, along with the supply system.

The Canadian policy differs sharply with the United States, where the
Supreme Court affirmed a federal ban on medical marijuana earlier
this year.

Canada also has a legal hemp industry, banned south of the border,
and its Supreme Court has agreed to consider a case challenging the
constitutionality of criminal marijuana laws.

A Parliament committee has been established to look at the nation's
drug laws, including the issue of decriminalization of marijuana.

Rock said Canada has to adhere to international treaties regarding
drugs and drug laws, but insisted the government was committed to a
"made-in-Canada drug policy."