Provinces ponder the cannabis pot of gold

South Canterbury is a place of cool temperatures and conservative values.

It produces sheep, tourism dollars and hydroelectric power. Why not cannabis?

In March, Sir Richard Branson suggested New Zealand could use some of the land currently trodden by dairy cows to cultivate cannabis and make a killing – all the while reducing our carbon footprint. Federated Farmers reacted positively. And why not? Huge cannabis cultivation facilities are opening in the United States to supply the burgeoning medicinal cannabis industry.

David Musgrave sells hemp oil products through his business, Waihi Bush, which he operates out of the South Canterbury town of Geraldine.

He’s been a lifelong campaigner for the legalisation of hemp products and foodstuffs and reckons New Zealand needs to get on with drug reform if the country means to profit from it.

‘‘New Zealand will have to get in soon if they want to capture the market (for recreational cannabis).’’

He is already planning to plant a hemp crop low in THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol), the active ingredient that causes the high from marijuana, in November. This plan comes after the Government legalised the sale of low-THC hemp food products in April.

Musgrave plans to make boutique food products from this crop, including a gourmet flour made from hemp.

South Canterbury Arable Section chairman Mike Porter represents farmers of grains and other crops within the province. He believes most farmers would be open to experimenting with the crop.

Cannabis would grow easily in the region’s temperate climate, mostly in greenhouse hydroponic facilities.

But Porter says securing the crops from thieves would have cost implications, and farmers already have a problem with staff showing up high.

So the vision of fields of cannabis replacing fields of wheat and barley is probably a bit off.

Some have doubts even about limited cultivation.

Fairlie beef and sheep farmer Mark Adams says South Canter- and bury has a ‘‘very traditional’’ agricultural industry. Most local farmers would be unwilling to experiment with growing cannabis due to ethical concerns about the impact on society.

Like Porter, Adams says significant numbers of South Canterbury agricultural workers arrive for shifts under the influence of the drug. This can be especially dangerous in situations where staff are operating trucks and heavy machinery.

‘‘We’re capitalists and we’re very commercially focused, but we do have a social conscience.’’

Farmers might be more willing if they could be sure their crop was for either industrial or medicinal use, Adams says.

Taranaki Federated Farmers president Donald McIntyre believes a cannabis cultivation industry would develop if the crop were legalised, to service demand for cannabis use in private homes.

‘‘It would probably be grown in areas such as Nelson, where growing conditions are ideal,’’ he says.

Regional mayors Meng Foon (Gisborne) and Gary Kircher (Oamaru) worry about the wider effects on communities.

Foon says legal highs such as ‘Zeus’ and ‘Spice’, which were banned in New Zealand in 2014, had a disastrous impact on his community, and believes cannabis legalisation would have a similar effect. He does, however, support medicinal cannabis legalisation if crops are ‘‘strictly controlled’’ and securely grown.

Kircher regards alcohol as an example of a legal drug that does significant social damage, and does not think legalisation of recreational cannabis would change things for the better in Oamaru.

He is willing to concede that the town might benefit, however.

‘‘In some respects, there’s opportunities for certain businesses in Oamaru. The tourism industry would benefit.’’

Even Musgrave expressed a degree of unease about recreational cannabis legalisation.

‘‘One of my sons became addicted to it (cannabis), and it seriously affected his mental health,’’ Musgrave says.

‘‘He started it as a teenager when he left school, and that majorly impacted on his brain function. By the time he managed to get off it, he had lost a lot of his short-term memory and some of his longer-term memory.

‘‘But that said, is it much worse than alcohol? I’m not sure that it is.’’