The Producers
How a licensed cannabis producer is adapting what they have learned from the medical market and applying it to the recreational
By Will Cowan
Secured grow room in the the GrenEx Facilty PHOTO BY Whitney Cullingham
The Alberta plains are known for their rolling hills of yellow crops of wheat and canola that stretch as far as the eye can see. But a new product sprouting in warehouses around the province is holding unprecedented promise for Albertans, and Canadians as a whole. Cannabis is looking to be Canada’s next cash crop, and companies like local producer GrenEx is chomping at the bit to be major players in the production of the formerly prohibited plant.
The legalization of cannabis has been on the minds of producers and investors for a few years, and questions are still lingering on how local producers will adapt to the recreational market.
GrenEx, a local cannabis producer based out of Edmonton, has been spending the last four years growing their operation from the medicinal market to get ready for the recreational facing the same questions as many other local producers.
The GrenEx facility is based in a nondescript warehouse in the south of Edmonton. The building is heavily secured right from the entrance, each door in the facility monitored and only accessed by specific people.
Every room is specifically tailored with different growing conditions, and each one secured so only specific people are allowed in like growers and inspectors. Each room is locked from the inside and out but the most guarded place in the whole facility is the vault, a stand-alone concrete room with all the seeds waiting to be planted.
John Simon, current CEO of Pebble Grass, a similar operation in the cannabis industry, and former CEO of GrenEx, is looking to get these questions about cannabis straight for the public.
“For the company to sell cannabis in the Canadian market, we follow the ACMPR (Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations), and that’s regulated by Health Canada,” says Simon, “so when you have a license to cultivate and a license to distribute under that Health Canada license you’re allowed to sell cannabis in Canada for both medicinal and recreational.”
In each room lies dozens of aeroponic cubes where the cannabis is grown, a system designed to yield as much usable product from cannabis plants as possible. Its high tech lighting systems are set to provide the right amount of light while its plumbing is built to deliver with pinpoint accuracy the proper nutrients the cannabis needs to achieve the optimum amount of product (commonly known as “bud”) from the plant.
“The numbers that we’re seeing right now is that five per cent of the population uses cannabis at least once a week and I believe 48 per cent of the Canadian population will try cannabis once it's legal,” says Simon.
Between the months of April and September of 2017, 1,984 kilograms of dried cannabis were sold by licensed producers, with 29,312 kilograms in inventory waiting to be sold to clients, according to Health Canada. GrenEx is currently expecting to sell 1,000 kilograms a year once their operations are fully operational.
“People respect… the natural health product brands that are produced and manufactured in Canada,” says Simon, “and I think we're going to have the same thing with cannabis where people are going to look for products made in Canada and feel that there's a level of consistency and purity and quality because of the regulatory framework have set up here.”
Health Canada is the licensor of all cannabis production in the country. Companies like GrenEx have to apply for their distribution licenses through Health Canada, while the act of actually distributing to the recreational market will be handled by individual province's jurisdictions.
GrenEx Pharms
Along with GrenEx Pharm. Canada has multiple other local producers in the cannabis sector four of which are in Alberta COURTESY Google Maps
What this looks like is that the government of Canada will not own any of the cannabis, but is setting up the rules and regulations for production and sale that each province will follow, while distribution will be handled based on the provincial model chosen.
Alberta has elected to use a private model, with producers selling to the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC), who will in turn sell to approved retailers in Alberta.
AGLC applications to become approved retailers of cannabis were made open to the public on March 6, 2018, while applications for local producers started May 25, 2017
While retailers are in the process of being approved local producers such as GrenEx and there complex are ready to start meeting the new demand.