This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on December 26, 2013.
We reported earlier about the State of Michigan drafting legislation, HB 660 which would allow for pharmacists to sell marijuana. And the bill’s financial backer, Prairie Plant Systems, would grow the plant and supply pharmacists from their abandoned copper mines in Michigan’s upper peninsula.
Prairie Plant Systems (a Canadian corporation) claims that the marijuana will be safe from pesticides because they will be grown deep underground, the only problem is their ‘abandoned mine’ is an EPA disaster and riddled with arsenic, mercury and other contaminants.
“There’s a need to bring this under the proper reins of appropriate manufacturing for patient safety and for public safety, ” said Brent Zettl, president and CEO of Prairie Plant Systems.
Mr. Zettl added “the unique environmental conditions of our underground chambers provide the growth conditions necessary for optimal biomass production at an accelerated rate.”
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and several other agencies indicate dangerous levels of arsenic, sulfuric acid and other contaminates still left in the abandoned mine. The town of White Pine, MI, local indian reservations and residents even received settlements from the mines operator for damages from environmental conditions.
Whether or not the contamination is contained, remediated or slowed, do we really want a Canadian company growing marijuana in an arsenic mine? My answer is ‘No’.
Sources:
http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/pmaj.html
http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/industrial/special/mining/techdocs/copper/copper4.pdf
http://kbocc.org/index/miningforum/MikeRipley.pdf