Future of cannabis not in Canada, national pot expert claims

For Canada's cannabis expert, the future of the drug in Canada isn't in northern commercial greenhouses, but in the fields of Central and South America.

Ernie Small isa principal research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Ottawa. He'sgrownand studiedthe drugfor decades,and has written several books on the subject though he swears he's never had so much as a toke.

Small says many of today'scommercial grow operations aren't run efficiently, which is driving up the cost of the drug. They're often run byself-taught growers who'vereliedon the advice of people growingcannabisillegally.

"There is a lot to learn, and their methodology is inefficient and is contributing to the high cost of marijuana," says Small, who has toured some of them. "There is no question that this is an industrywith huge profit potential, but it also has bankruptcy potential."

In Central and South America, cannabis crops can be grown a lot cheaper than in Canada.

He points to several large domestic cannabis growersthathave investedin companies in South American countries to producecannabisoils.

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An interesting beginning

Small got his start in the cannabis game for the federal government back in the early 1970s, when he was tasked with studying the difference between illegal cannabis and legal hempon a near-hectare of landin Ottawa's Central Experimental Farm, a wide swath of federal fields smack dab in the middle of the capital.

Police departments around the world sent him 350 cannabis seeds through the mail. They needed to be sure if the joints they seized from smokers were from illegal plants containing a lot of the psychoactive element THC, or hemp, which has a lot less THC.

He grew hundreds ofplants on the farm, spawning acareer that earned him the Order of Canadain December 2017 for his contribution to botanical knowledge and public policy.

"It grew fantastically well," saysthe now-78-year-old scientist. "We had plants that were 18 feet high."

But eventually the grow-opsoured.Word about the hidden cannabissurrounded by corn leaked out, and trespassers were getting highongovernment bud.

A barbed-wire fence, guards and "some rather viciousguard dogs" couldn't keep them out, Small recalls.In all, about 50 plants were stolen from the plot near Ash Lane, which earned the nickname Hash Lane.

"The blame came down ultimately to me and I almost lost my job," Small says in his office inside the farm's William Saunders Building.

The outdoor cannabis was eventually movedinto a secure greenhouse and remained there untilthe early 1980s.

But back in 1976, Small had acquired enoughdatatopublish his botanical classification systemseparatinglegal hemp from illegal cannabis by using a benchmark of 0.3 per cent THC.

Anything above that was classified as illegal. The policy was adopted around the world and is still used today.

"It turned out to be the most significant contribution I have ever made,"Small says.

Years later, when the Liberal government decided to legalize cannabis forrecreational purposes, Small says he was taken aback.

"I never thought marijuana would ever become legalizedperiod," he says. "It's a surprisethat the counter-culture movement has been able to consolidate and become the majority of society."

But he supports the move, and evenhelped write the new federal law.

"In this case I entirely support it because it just makes perfect sense," he says. "The war on drugs has been substantially a failure, and how many people can you put in jail?"

Despite all the cannabis research he's done, Small says without hesitation that he'snever sampled the drugand "never will."

"The government put tremendous trust in me, and the whole idea of betraying that trust just seemed to me to go against whoI am as a scientist," he says.

And even now thatrecreational cannabisislegal, Small insists he's not even a littlecurious about what it'slike. "I'm really conservative about what I put in the body," he says.

But he willgrow the permissible four cannabis plants in hisgreenhouse at home. After all this time studying them, it appears he's grown used to having them nearby.

"It will just make me feel comfortable to have the plants around," he says.