POT PLANT PRIMED TO MINE ITS WEED

Flin Flon Operation Grows It For Feds

A new policy announced Wednesday that allows ill people to buy medicinal
marijuana from the federal government means a Manitoba-based laboratory
will finally see its product being used.

Saskatchewan-based Prairie Plant Systems has grown the federal marijuana in
an underground mine in Flin Flon since receiving a five-year, $5.75-million
contract in 2000.

Brent Zettl, president of PPS, said he isn't sure how the new policy will
affect his company. He found out about the policy the same day as the rest
of the country, in a telephone call from Health Canada. He said PPS has not
been given any instructions on how much marijuana will be needed or where
it will be shipped.

"Health Canada will be giving us direction on where to send the material,"
he said. "We still don't know all the details about how all of this is
going to be implemented practically."

Federal Health Minister Anne McLellan said Wednesday the federal government
is only allowing the purchase of marijuana because a court order says it is
illegal to do otherwise. She said the government would rather only allow
the drug to be sold once its effectiveness is proven by clinical trials.

The government is appealing the court's decision, and McLellan has hinted
sales may be stopped if the government wins the appeal. "For us it's a
welcome step, despite the minister's comments," Zettl said.

He said PPS isn't interested in growing marijuana long-term, but rather
sees it as a stepping stone to growing plants that will be used to make
antibiotics and cancer treatments in the underground environment.

"When we started this program, we saw it as a good business opportunity as
it leads to other plant-based pharmaceuticals," he said. "Really, we're
using the marijuana as proof of concept."

He said that until the product is given to patients, this concept cannot be
evaluated.

"We really want to see this in the hands of patients... ," he said.
"Stopping short of that is like finishing a song without singing the last
few bars."

There have been suggestions in the past that Prairie Plant Services has had
difficulties maintaining the quality of the marijuana they grow, but Zettl
said PPS now has a consistent plant. "The product is now standardized," he
said. "We're producing it from cloned material."

PPS is still trying to create an acceptable placebo to be used in clinical
trials. The marijuana PPS grows has a 10 per cent THC content, which is the
active medicinal ingredient. The government is requesting that the placebo
plant have a 0.1 per cent THC content.

Zettl said PPS has made leaps forward in this research and should be able
to provide a placebo by the time the federal government is ready to begin
clinical trials.

It isn't known when PPS marijuana will be in the hands of patients, but
Zettl said the company is ready to fill any order from Health Canada.

"We have a significant amount of material. And if Health Canada gives us a
directive, we'll fulfill it at this point," he said.