Reprinted from the Calgary Herald by Robin Summerfield

Peter Facchini is neither a drug lord nor an addict -- but a quick glance at his resume might suggest otherwise.

As the keeper of a small garden of opium poppies in an unmarked basement room at the University of Calgary, the 38-year-old Facchini has a small stash that might make a junkie's eyes glaze over.

Under 16-hour-a-day bright lights, 80 per cent humidity and 26 C temperatures of a growth chamber -- it looks like a big, green refrigerator but produces the opposite effect -- Facchini tends to his crop of the morphine-producing plants.

But as a plant cell biologist, biochemist, geneticist, molecular biologist and phytochemist, the researcher is intently focused on his plants and the potential they have in the legal world. His groundbreaking work has won international notice and national financial support.

"I'd like to see the Prairies covered by opium poppies," said a slightly hesitant Facchini. "Well, maybe not covered, but this could be a new crop alternative."

Facchini wants to isolate the opium poppy's enzyme-encoded genes, understand the 18 or so metabolic stages from beginning to codeine and then on to morphine, and then alter that process. In the end, he may wind up giving opium poppies a better reputation.

"It is very valuable as a legitimate medicinal plant, but it is also used for the illegal production of heroin, so by blocking the synthesis of the molecule at certain stages, it could be developed into a new weapon in the war on drugs," said Facchini.

"Now you would have a variety that is not only more valuable commercially -- because you're avoiding a chemical step -- but you also have a variety that avoids the possibility of converting morphine into heroin.

"In the form of codeine, it would be much more difficult to produce heroin."

Facchini's research could allow scientists to customize the pathway, possibly producing plants with more morphine. Or by stopping the process at codeine, the opium poppy could even become a Wild Rose Country crop, he suggested.

The metabolic engineering Facchini proposes may help de-stigmatize opium poppies as a crop for drug lords. Instead, it could deliver the poppies into the legal hands of Alberta farmers, provided the right, genetically altered variety are used, our laws have been amended and the public's anti-opium plant stance has changed.

Extensive competition for commodity crops such as wheat around the world have put Alberta farmers behind the eight-ball. Countries such as Argentina and China can produce crops far cheaper than farmers in Canada, he said.

With two per cent of all prescriptions filled in North America containing either morphine or codeine, a thriving market is there for the taking.

And as the largest per capita consumers of codeine in the world, Facchini said Canadians are a homegrown customer base for our farmers.

Canada gets most of its supplies of morphine and codeine from Australia and France, where opium poppies are grown legally.

Facchini's research has garnered international attention. He recently returned from France, where he is working with other researchers.

In November, the federal government awarded him a Canada Research Chair worth $1 million over the next 10 years. With that money, Facchini's salary will be covered and other money can be used to upgrade his large lab on the third floor of the biological sciences building at the university.

Six research students work with Facchini, who hopes to add about two more senior researchers in the next year.

The soft-spoken academic is quick to note he has a permit to grow the plants from the federal government.

He began studying the plant 10 years ago during his post-doctoral research at the University of Montreal. Facchini's supervisor handed him a jar full of the opium poppy seeds and told him to clone one of its genes, which had never been done.

He accomplished the task, becoming the first person to clone the gene involved with morphine biosynthesis, and there was no turning back.

Today, there is only one other lab in the world trying to understand the alkaloid synthesis of the opium plant.

"It's good to be known in a research area that's controversial," said Facchini. "Well, not exactly controversial, but it grabs people's attention."