GOVERNMENT HAS GROWN CANNABIS BEFORE

Re: Federal marijuana too potent to use, April 21.

As a retired agronomist, I find it amusing that the federal government has
again had problems in producing marijuana for medical purposes.

First, the company with the Health Canada's medicinal marijuana contract
since 2000 has had problems for two years getting a satisfactory crop.

What is so hard about growing this crop? According to a news story last
week (Illegal raising of marijuana an 'epidemic,' April 29), many illegal
growers manage to get good results either indoors or out. In some parts of
the country, the gardeners have been so successful that grow operations
have increased sixfold in 10 years.

Back in 1971, I led a group of scientists at the Central Experimental Farm
who grew several thousand plants for the RCMP in fields alongside Maple
Lane. The objective was to compare plants from seed seized at various
locations to see whether this would help in identifying sources. We
surrounded the plot area with leafy corn hybrids, and everything grew well,
as expected. But the project was a failure because the plants all looked
the same.

No one appeared to notice what we were doing until a story appeared in the
newspaper after some politician made a try for glory by blurting about the
experiment.

After the news leaked out, people appeared in daytime and at night to
harvest most of the crop in raids. That happened in spite of our posting
armed guards and dogs. The experiment was not repeated.

But we did prove that marijuana is not hard to grow in Eastern Ontario,
even by the government.

Francis Warren,

Nepean