clarinews@clarinet.com (COLIN FLAHERTY) (02/02/90)
SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- A firm whose sole product is an indoor horticulture system advertised in the pro-marijuana magazine High Times has received the San Diego Chamber of Commerce's highest award for manufacturing. The Chamber this week named Pyraponic Industries Inc. II as its Business of the Year in Manufacturing for making the Phototron, a 3-foot-high greenhouse that sells for $390. The Phototron was invented by Pyraponic founder Jeffery DeMarco while doing federally licensed research on marijuana cultivation for a master's degree at the University of Illinois. The product is sold only through mail-order advertisements in magazines such as High Times, Magical Blend, Heavy Metal and Penthouse. The ads do not explicitly encourage the growth of marijuana but often emphasize DeMarco's marijuana-growing expertise. DeMarco, whose Rancho Bernardo firm has been visited by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, is slated to receive a city commendation at the Chamber's as-yet-unscheduled awards banquet along with six other businesses honored in different categories. Chamber spokesman Pete Litrenta said Thursday the group did not know about DeMarco's connection to marijuana cultivation. The annual awards are given out solely on the basis information supplied by applicants. Pyraponic employed 65 workers and reported $10 million in sales in 1989, a 2,642 percent increase since 1984. More than 80,000 Phototron units have been sold in the firm's 8-year history. The company was recognized in 1989 by Inc. magazine as one of the 500 fastest growing private corporations in the country. DeMarco, a former anti-trust investigator for the Florida attorney general, has claimed to be one of the world's top experts on marijuana. But a company spokesman denied that DeMarco encourages illegal or dangerous activity. However, sales literature promises that after ``20 days, 6 to 8 ounces of plant material, such as tobacco, can be harvested every 45 days.'' The machine's operating manual also show how to harvest and dry plant material for possible use in brownies. ``Marijuana,'' DeMarco told the Drug Enforcement Agency in an affidavit filed to apply for a research grant, ``is the safest drug known to man ... (and) the highest plant of sophistication.'' DEA agents say they do not believe his claims that Phototron is not marketed to drug abusers. ``In my experience, anyone who reads High Times magazine is a drug user,'' agent Jim Mavromatis said. Last October, in a nationwide crackdown dubbed ``Operation Green Merchant,'' federal drug agents raided indoor gardening shops and arrested 300 suspects for selling equipment that can be used illegally to grow marijuana indoors. The raids targeted shops selling electric timing devices, fans, gardening pots, fertilizers and sophisticated ``grow lights'' designed to mimic the effect of the sun on plants. DEA agents visited the Pyraponic warehouse during the crackdown but no arrests were made, company spokesman Dan Shahbazi said. A former employee who asked to remain anonymous said he answered queries from Phototron owners who often sent in pictures and even samples of marijuana plants growing in their units. The employee, a lab technician, said he quit after the DEA visited Pyraponic headquarters. The Phototron units are ``basically all being used to grow marijuana,'' said the employee. ``You can tell that from the kind of questions they (owners) ask.'' When Phototron owners send in soil samples to be analyzed for any problems, they are instructed not to identify which plants they are growing, said Shahbazi. DeMarco, who is often pictured in Phototron ads standing next to a unit, has applied for a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to study the marijuana plant, also called cannabis hemp. The grant application was submitted under the company name Hemptek/Pyrapharmaceutical, Inc., and outlined the firm's intention to isolate and study the impact different environments have on the cannabis plant.