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“It very quickly became apparent that teenagers were doing a lot of the raiding. And we could not expose them to these dogs, so the dogs were kept chained up, ” he said. “We didn’t have searchlights… so the whole plot was a sitting duck.”

After one summer, the operation was later moved indoors until roughly 1980, when the department of Agriculture decided it didn’t want to grow cannabis on the premises, he said.

Subsequently, Small said he grew legal cannabis in association with the private sector, on private land.

Small was also closely involved in selecting the strain of marijuana that is now the basis of all licensed medical marijuana in Canada.

“It was a reasonable strain, easily producing 12 per cent THC,” he said.

Today, Small noted, there are stronger strains with different balances of cannabinoids — chemical compounds secreted by cannabis flowers which give pot its medical and recreational properties.

Still, Small believes that cannabis is now “on the verge of huge changes that are agriculturally significant, in terms of the productivity of this plant.”

While most other crops have undergone the so-called Green Revolution, which has boosted agricultural production, cannabis has been left behind, he said.

“The green revolution phase has totally been overlooked, because, of course, it’s been illegal most of the last century,” he said. “We are standing on the verge of huge changes that are agriculturally significant in terms of the productivity of this plant. It’s just a mind-boggling situation. There is no other crop but cannabis that is in this remarkable situation.”

When asked whether his research, or recreation, has ever involved dabbling in pot himself, Small responded, “Hell, no.”

He said if there is even the slightest odour of cannabis at a party, he immediately leaves. It’s an approach he intends to keep up with, even after July 2018.

“I’m as pure as the driven snow,” Small said, adding that he does not drink alcohol or coffee either. “The simple fact is I’m entrusted with an enormous responsibility. And I am not going to, and have never, considered compromising that.”