They’re proving controversial for users, but the producers setting up under new rules for medical marijuana say they’ll be good for the local economy.
Patients will have to start buying from licensed commercial growers.
Nanaimo-based Tilray still doesn’t have a Health Canada license to start production, but it says it will eventually hire anywhere from 40 to 60 people when it has its facility at Duke Point running.
Suncoast Medicann on the Sunshine Coast just got zoning approval from the Regional District for a facility in the Port Mellon area.
Once they get their license and go into full production they hope to employ as many as 30 people. The company’s Chris Danroth says he expects to find a lot of the workforce, and his suppliers, locally.
Thunderbird Biomedical near Duncan is the only grower in the area that actually has its license, and one of only 12 so far across the country. It’s been telling potential customers they expect to start limited sales later this month.
Of course not everybody is happy with the new rules, know as the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations; or MMPR.
People licensed to grow for themselves recently won a court injunction allowing them to keep their plants, at least for now. The federal government is appealing.
And hundreds of cannabis activists rallied on Parliament Hill Tuesday protest the changes.
