Pubdate: Thu, 10 Nov 2016
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Bethany Lindsay
Page: 4

GREENER DAYS AHEAD, B.C. POT GROWER SAYS

Market expanding as more states legalize weed

As California, Nevada, Maine and Massachusetts appear set to join the
growing list of states that have legalized recreational pot, one of
B.C.'s biggest medical marijuana producers is seeing big opportunities
in the American market.

After several successful ballot initiatives south of the border this
week, B.C. will soon be the only West Coast jurisdiction between the
Bering Sea and Tijuana where toking up is still restricted to medical
use. But the people behind Tilray, the federally licensed cannabis
production facility on Vancouver Island, aren't concerned about losing
their edge to rivals south of the border when Canada eventually
legalizes pot.

"I think Canadian companies have a huge advantage based on the very
tight regulatory framework that exists in the medical cannabis program
in Canada," Tilray president Brendan Kennedy said Wednesday.

That tight framework may have squeezed out many entrepreneurs
interested in jumping into the legal medical marijuana business, but
lack of competition has allowed licensed producers to grow quite large.

"You don't see cultivation facilities as large as the ones that you
see in Canada anywhere else in the world. It takes a different level
of management and skill to operate a facility like that, and that
knowledge, that intellectual property, is a huge advantage that
Canadian firms have."

California's approval of legal pot opens up the largest commercial
market in the U.S. In all, residents of eight states have voted in
favour of recreational marijuana use, including the West Coast states
of Alaska, Washington and Oregon.

The American company that owns Tilray, Privateer Holdings, hopes to
build a new facility with new branding to produce recreational strains.

It has a jump on the international market, too. Earlier this year,
Tilray became the first company to legally export medical marijuana to
Europe and has employees in Australia waiting for that country to
launch its own medical marijuana regime.

But pot activist Jodie Emery worries Canada's legalization scheme will
be too focused on restricting marijuana sales and controlling the
drug's use to give many businesses a chance to be competitive.

"As we've seen since 2012, and as we're going to see in the years
ahead, marijuana is a very viable legitimate business that should be
taken very seriously and not overly regulated because we'll then deny
ourselves a lot of great opportunities.

"As usual, America will have to go first and set the model that Canada
will have to follow. I just hope it doesn't take 10 years as it
usually does for us to catch up."
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MAP posted-by: Matt