GROWING MEDICINAL MARIJUANA NOT FOR FARMERS, APPLICANTS DISCOVER

EDMONTON (CP) - Alberta farmers produce some of the finest wheat and barley
in the world but may lack what it takes to be Canada's official marijuana
suppliers. Health Canada has called for proposals to supply the government
with standardized, affordable, high-quality marijuana.

The pot would be used to supply people who obtain federal permission to
smoke it for medical reasons and to gather scientific evidence on its
safety and effectiveness.

"We thought this was something to look into," said Kerry Werezak, who with
her husband Orest, own a 64-hectare former pig farm near Daysland, east of
Edmonton.

"So we phoned Ottawa to see what the qualifications were and we told them
then we were just plain, ordinary farmers," she said.

"We had to pay them about $70 to send the (information) package out, but
from the first page we knew we didn't qualify."

Applicants require a university science degree and must be bilingual in
French and English.

Greg Johnston of Alberta Beach, west of Edmonton, sent for an information
package after he quit turkey farming.

"But when I got their proposal, I saw you needed all these degrees and
what-not so I couldn't see how I could apply for it.

"I don't know why they just didn't tell us straight out, before we asked
for the proposal, that it's not for farmers. It's for drug companies or
something like that."

The federal department has so far received about 195 requests for the
information package.

The contract, estimated to be worth about $5 million, requires the
successful bidder to produce 100,000 "standardized" marijuana cigarettes
and 100 kilograms of "raw bulk" marijuana in the first year.

The marijuana is for clinical research trials to gather evidence on whether
it's safe and effective for patients to smoke for medicinal purposes. The
deadline for bids is June 6.

Those interested in growing pot include McGill and Guelph universities, the
giant Quebec-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, British Columbia's
Ministry of Forestry, Saskatchewan Health, the Health Point Pain and Injury
Clinic of Winnipeg, Sensemilla ACRES of Blaine Lake, Sask., Holy Smoke of
Hope, B.C., and Just Say Grow Ltd. of Richmond, B.C.

One Alberta company that plans to compete for the contract is Natural
Farmworks Ltd. of Red Deer. Owner Brad McNish has a science degree from the
University of Alberta and is a former Calgary police officer.

His company uses hydroponics to grow plants from which mineral nutrients
are extracted for animal feed and for supplements for humans.

"This fits in very well with our company's core expertise," McNish said.

"But I was also a police officer for 15 years and spent a lot of time
prosecuting people for the hydroponic growing of marijuana. From that I
learned a lot that can be applied to this project."