Has Gimli gone to pot?

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Sean Best in one of the rooms of his medical-marijuana grow-op on his family's Interlake farm. He's an outspoken advocate for producing cannabis for patients who need it. (MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

GIMLI -- Sean Best, standing in the heart of downtown Gimli, says he knows of seven medical-marijuana grow operations within a one-mile radius.

"Per capita, nobody has as many growers as we do here," he boasts.

His "per-capita" claim is hard to ascertain, but Gimli does sound like a bit of a medical-marijuana mecca in Canada. Best knows the local medical-marijuana growers -- he's one of them -- because he helped get them started. He has even been contacted by a physician to find suppliers for patients.

The local growers include everyone from fishermen's wives to local contractors, all earning a little money on the side growing cannabis. Best operates his company, South Basin Meds, outside Gimli.

The growers are under threat from legislation the federal government is preparing to tighten medical-marijuana rules. The law is expected to shut down small, independent producers such as Best.

Other Gimli growers declined to talk on the record, but not Best. He's already been interviewed by drug-culture magazine High Times and the United Kingdom publication Weed World. "I want to educate the general public about what goes on. I'm not a drug dealer; I grow meds for patients," he said.

The limiting factor is an independent grower cannot have more than two customers. As well, medical-marijuana farmers cannot write off the usual tax deductions, such as hydro and other costs, permitted to home-based businesses, says Best's accountant.

Even so, more people are growing pot legally to make a second income.

Best, who turns 25 this year, allows he dealt pot outside the law for years before the medical-marijuana opportunity came along, allowing him to grow it legally. He obtained his Health Canada licence five years ago. He doesn't make as much money as when he operated illegally but, as he said, at least he can't go to jail.

To get a licence, a grower needs a background check for criminal activity, must have no drug-trafficking charges in the previous 10 years and must supply a passport-type photo.

Best is allowed to have more than 100 plants at a time to supply both himself (he has epileptic seizures) and a customer who broke his neck in two places and has severe pain. A previous customer died of cancer. The number of plants allowed is based on a formula found on Health Canada's website.

"My basement is lit up," Best said.

Prices are negotiable, but a check on price-gouging is the $5 per gram Health Canada charges for its medical marijuana. Best said he charges $5.60 per gram, or about $100 an ounce. An Ontario group asked him to join them in setting the price of independently grown cannabis at $200 an ounce, but he declined. Purchases of medical marijuana are not covered by medicare.

Health Canada inspectors visit the medical grow-ops, but the RCMP handle many rural areas. The Mounties visit Best every three weeks, on average, to ensure he's not breaking any laws, he said.

"I do not mind the RCMP coming to my place. I will not hide what I do for a living. I do not want to do anything illegal."

He is almost fanatically purist in his growing practices, using natural-medium sphagnum moss, and claims he can grow different strains of marijuana, including one that doesn't give users the munchies.

More than 12,000 Canadians are legally permitted to possess medical marijuana, and more than 7,000 hold a licence to grow it for their medical condition, according to 2011 Health Canada figures. About 2,200 hold licences to grow cannabis for people other than themselves.

People using marijuana for medical conditions can now obtain licences to either grow their own or buy from the government, an independent grower or a compassion club -- a non-profit provider of medical marijuana.

Current law will likely be replaced by one in which pot prescriptions are filled by large, centralized, authorized growers, then shipped by courier, federal officials have said. There would be a smaller number of grow operations compared to now.

But the new law is expected to have a transition period and the current system might not be phased out until 2015. The government has said it expects court challenges to the new law.

Best said he hopes his business is large enough and his growing expertise valuable enough that he can survive under the new legislation. But he has already applied for the electrical program at Red River College in case he loses his business.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 4, 2012 B1