Entrepreneurial dreams go to pot

Bid to grow research-grade marijuana for federal government may be more trouble than it's worth

By: Pat Daley

  There's just one week left to get those bids in on the federal government's tender for growing marijuana for research. When the tender was announced on May 4, it sounded like a great business opportunity for anyone with an interest in farming and alternative or herbal medicine.
  Unfortunately, the project isn't going to provide a supply of product to the 42 people currently permitted to use marijuana for medical purposes, according to a Health Canada spokesperson. Anyone trying to help them out still runs the risk of getting busted for trafficking.
  No, it's a request for proposals (RFP) to cultivate and process a Canadian supply of research-grade marijuana. And it's so full of detailed requirements for security and academic credentials, that a reader quickly realizes a) oh right, marijuana's illegal ... and b) it's a different league from dabblers in organic gardening and herbs looking for a new business idea, like my friends and me.
 

All in all, the federal government is prepared to pay big bucks - up to $5 million over five years - for a project that wouldn't even be necessary if they'd just legalize the plant

  We ordered the RFP to see if this was a venture within our scope of abilities - both to grow and process the marijuana and to raise capital for land and facilities. It looked easy enough: submit a five-year plan to grow and harvest a few hundred kilograms of marijuana each year, bulk package some of it and make cigarettes out of the rest, and store it or ship it to Health Canada's researchers.
  After the first year, there is also a requirement to produce placebo marijuana, which seems like a cruel joke to play on a test subject looking for relief from pain or nausea. Articles supporting the cultivation of industrial hemp always seem to mention that smoking cannabis sativa without the THC will yield nothing but a headache. Like smoking grass. The kind you mow.
  All in all, the federal government is prepared to pay big bucks - up to $5 million over five years - for a project that wouldn't even be necessary if they'd just legalize the plant. This RFP is only for producing the raw material for researchers. The research itself is going to cost even more.
 

Security requirements include two eight-foot high fences, the outer one topped with barbed wire, around any field; one fence around greenhouses; greenhouse glazing to cover windows, closed circuit cameras; infrared sensors; panic buttons, and - needless to say - random searches of all staff

  It's not really possible to compare the yield from an acre of medical marijuana with that of industrial hemp because different parts of the plant are used, says Jean Leprise, president of Kenex Ltd. His company, which grows industrial hemp outside of Chatham, Ontario, is not interested in the federal RFP. They've had enough trouble with U.S. Customs stopping shipments of hemp bird seed and hemp oil for use in dog food.
  Ruth Shamai of R&D Hemp is also a grower. She doesn't know anything about marijuana cultivation, such as which pests may attack the plant because of higher THC levels. However, she says industrial hemp basically needs well-cultivated soil with lots of nitrogen. There are relatively few pests and, even if there were, no pesticides are approved for the crop. So cultivation is not too expensive.
  Leprise says he can't imagine any bid having trouble coming in under budget.
 

It was actually a bit nerve-wracking even to order to the RFP documents, not knowing if the request list could end up in the hands of one police agency or another on a fishing expedition

  Public Works and Government Services Canada won't say how much of the $5 million budget estimate was based on security requirements because they don't want to sully the bidding process. Those requirements include two eight-foot high fences, the outer one topped with barbed wire, around any field; one fence around greenhouses; greenhouse glazing to cover windows, closed circuit cameras; infrared sensors; panic buttons, and - needless to say - random searches of all staff.
  Any bid that includes individuals with drug-related criminal convictions will get the heave-ho pretty quickly. It was actually a bit nerve-wracking even to order to the RFP documents, not knowing if the request list could end up in the hands of one police agency or another on a fishing expedition. The list, with phone numbers and addresses, is available to anyone who orders the documents or subscribes to MERX, the electronic tendering service used by most governments.
  The availability of the list came as a surprise to Samantha and Aaron Klinck of Blain Lake, Saskatchewan. A friend who works with an Ontario organization providing high quality marijuana to people with medical needs asked them to place the order. He didn't want the documents delivered to any of the organization's secure locations.
  After reading the MERX privacy policy, they placed the order and decided to have a laugh when they came to the "company name" box. They typed: "Sinsemilla Acres."
  "Now we have all the newspaper people calling us," says Samantha. "And we live across from the police station."
  But the lack of privacy doesn't seem to bother some people.
  Our telephone rang at about 9:30 one night.
  "Hello, this is Rod. I'm calling about the bid," said the voice of someone looking for collaborators. "I've already got all the equipment."
  Sorry, Rod, but that's probably not going to help. What you really need is a Bachelor of Science or some other degree that involved studying chemistry, bio-chemistry, pharmacology, pharmacy, microbiology, chemical engineering, medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine. That's the requirement for the Qualified Person in Charge, or QPIC, for the project.
  And that's what killed our interest. We were ready for the security requirements. We were pretty confident about growing and processing the crop. We could even handle inventory control. Unfortunately, there's not a scientist among us. We thought we'd be able to contract out the testing for THC levels.
  That's what industrial hemp growers do. Their crop must be tested once a year - what the federal government wants "is what we don't want," says Leprise. The cost of the annual test runs about $300 to $400, says Shamai.
  It's clearer all the time that the size of the budget results from dealing with an illegal substance. As entrepreneurs, we were tickled by the idea of a lucrative contract for an agricultural product. As taxpayers and people who think current laws governing marijuana are outdated, we're angry that the federal government is spending $5 million for a medicine that most Canadians can grow on their balconies or in their back yards - as 42 people are currently allowed to do to ease their suffering.
  P.S. For those who are interested in such things, there had been 202 requests for the RFP as of yesterday. Forty-eight were from British Columbia, 47 from Quebec, 40 from Ontario, 18 from Alberta, 16 from Manitoba, 14 from Saskatchewan, eight from Nova Scotia, three from Prince Edward Island and two from New Brunswick, four from the United States and one from Europe.

Pat Daley is a freelance writer and editor in Athlone in Simcoe County, Ontario.

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