POT FACTORY COULD BE TRANSPLANTED

If a federally licensed marijuana growing operation is located in the city,
where is the best place for it?

That was one of the questions discussed last Wednesday by Yoram Adler,
deputy director of The Merlin Project with the B.C. Marijuana Factory, when
he met with the city's senior planning analyst, Jim Hurst.

The company has been growing marijuana legally for medicinal purposes in a
residential neighbourhood in Queensborough. The company requested a meeting
with the city to discuss alternative locations for their factories "for the
sake of greater co-operation with the municipality."

Hurst said that, at the meeting, the two parties discussed locations for
the grow operation.

"In general categories, where would you like to see this happen?" he asked.

If people prefer not to have the growing operation in a residential area,
would it be more suited in an industrial area? he asked.

Hurst said he has had a number of calls from residents asking about the
growing operation being in a residential area. They were calls of inquiry,
much like the calls of inquiry the city received when Monarch Place, a
house for women and children fleeing violence, opened in a residential area.

"People know it's in their community and they want to know more about it."

For their part, Adler says his company wants to co-operate with the city,
although the city doesn't have jurisdiction over the growing operation,
which is licensed by the federal government.

"We don't mind moving at all," said Adler. "We asked the city to enter into
these discussions."

While legal medicinal marijuana grow operations are present in other
Canadian cities, neither Hurst nor Keith Coueffin, the city's assistant
director of strategic services, had investigated how these cities dealt
with the operations.

The marijuana is being grown for people who use it legally for medicinal
purposes. Adler guesses that between 63 and 84 patients in New Westminster
and Burnaby make use of the marijuana his factory grows.

Medicinally, the plant is used for numerous applications, including chronic
pain control, nausea control and for gaining back appetite for people with
HIV or cancer.

There are a number of medical research programs throughout the world
focusing on medicinal marijuana use, including at McGill University in
Montreal, St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and G.W. Pharmaceuticals in
England. The latter has a clinical trial with 350 multiple sclerosis patients.

The Dutch have approved pharmacies to dispense the plant with a doctors'
prescription, said Adler.

In Canada, the federal government has approved more than 800 licences for
people to grow marijuana for personal medicinal use, as a personal-use
producer or as a designated grower, said Adler.

The B.C. Marijuana Factory has 60 plants growing. Its licence allows for 110.