Norfolk Man Supplying Medical Marijuana

[Ganjarden]

From the outside, the farm looks like any other in the tobacco belt.

The side windows on the old-style wooden kilns are open. This year's crop is visible, hanging upside down and turning yellow.

The only clue that something is amiss is the greenhouse, its contents hidden by plastic sheets put up on the inside.

A man wearing a ball cap emerges from the back door carrying a large stick at his side and holds back a pit bull on a chain.

He is guarding a $1 million crop that has been growing behind the plastic for weeks: marijuana.

What's happening inside is not illegal; the grower, a Delhi man who rents the greenhouse from the farmer, is licensed by Health Canada to supply the plant's byproducts to the sick, who in turn must be signed on by their doctor.

"We get bigger and bigger every week," says Richard West, who boasts he's been growing pot since age 11 and insists he's one of the world's foremost growers. "The outcry for this is insane."

West supplies marijuana to people with a wide variety of ailments, such as arthritis, cancer, multiple sclerosis and Tourette Syndrome.

The problem, he says, is that the chronically ill suffer debilitating side-effects from years of taking traditional drugs such as steroids. The cure becomes as bad as the disease.

Marijuana eases their pain, increases their appetite or stops their muscle spasms without the side-effects. West, 48, says he gives the sick their lives back again.

More and more people are turning to him for help, he says, and he intends to expand his operation in Norfolk -also offering a lifeline to desperate farmers who face losing their status as a legal farm if they can't find a crop to replace tobacco.

The problem is that earlier this summer he ran afoul of the law. About a month ago, police showed up to the greenhouse he rents in the west end of Norfolk County with a search warrant and raided the premises.

Norfolk OPP Const. Mark Foster says West's licence allows him to grow only a certain number of plants. Police, says Foster, left with some of his plants but have yet to lay any charges.

"It's still up for discussion," says Foster. "Charges are still pending."

West counters that he is allowed to grow over his quota to take account for some plants that won't flower and never got the chance to do a "cull" before police showed up.

In the meantime, he says, the raid, which saw police cars parked in front of the farm for four or five hours, has brought his operation to the public's attention and made his life hell: everybody now knows what he's doing in the greenhouse and attempts to steal from him have gone up.

West says he has had to step up security at his greenhouse and has had violent clashes with people sneaking up on his operation in the dark.

"The best way to fight this is send some home dog-bitten and beaten up," says West, who sleeps inside the greenhouse with his guard and two dogs, the pit bull and a Doberman.

Since the raid, he says he has added a $15,000 alarm system while his dogs have been let loose on intruders 11 times.

He points to notches on the large stick his guard carries and says each one represents a broken bone given in a confrontation with a trespasser.

West, a father and grandfather, acknowledges he has been convicted eight times on drug charges, but that was a long time ago, he says, and he has changed.

What he's interested in now, he says, is using his knowledge to help people and to potentially create a local industry.

West is one of 3,245 people in Canada licensed to produce medical marijuana. They supply 4,475 sick people who are authorized to possess dried marijuana.

His expansion plans include, he says, the building of a research centre outside Walsingham that will house two scientists plus other staff.

The idea is to come up with better ways to ingest the plant.

Marijuana can be eaten, put into cookies or brownies, put in pill form or drops, or used as strips you put on the tongue.

"We recommend you not smoke it," says West, who suffers from arthritis and also uses marijuana for medical purposes. "You can make it into butter and cook with it. That's what we recommend."


News Hawk- Ganjarden http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: Brantford Expositor
Author: DANIEL PEARCE
Contact: Brantford Expositor
Copyright: 2009 Sun Media
Website: Norfolk Man Supplying Medical Marijuana

[michaelkaer]

Where do I interview for a job there? :)

[ElectroPig]

I think that it's time that the people-ho have always been ahead of our respective governments--simply took matters into their own hands and started to plant cannabis everywhere.

Plant seeds in planters on the main street of town. Every town has those who use cannabis, if not medically, recreationally, so they'll appreciate seeing them growing. Those who've never use or considered using cannabis for either medical or recreational uses have also been lied to about the "dangerous addictive, gateway drug" that is, in reality, just a plant. When they actually SEE the plant, this common sense idea might actually take root in their collective crania.

Plant them in hanging baskets in the business district. Let's face it, almost every business owner, and especially corporate types, have always used whatever they wanted to use because they've got the money, and if they get addicted to ******, they can just pay for treatment quietly and noone's the wiser. They'll love to have access to herb by just walking out front and picking a bud, I'm sure!

Plant them in the steep ditches out in the country. Harder to get rid of there, so they're likely to be left alone.

Plant them wherever there is open land...highway...railroad trellises...country roads...but plant those seeds! It doesn't even matter what strain of seed it is, because most will be cut down by the ignorant (mainly police who know no better) "because they're so dangerous"...but the point here is NOT to expect any degree of mature plants, or to harvest them at all. The idea is to get the plant VISIBLE again. EVERYWHERE. Just like it used to be...and then people will finally relearn that cannabis is just a plant. A plant that can, as Jack Herer said, save the world.

Still hoping that Jack wakes up soon...and heals quickly!

PS: Phoenix Tears - Promoting Hemp Oil as a natural healing agent... has come back online yesterday afternoon...for those who didn't already know.