The company will grow medical marijuana at its site in a former Hershey Co. plant in Smiths Falls, Ont., about 80 kilometres southwest of Ottawa. Registration begins Feb. 6 for patients wanting to buy its product.
Tweed Inc. already had permission to start planting a variety of strains, but can now expand its crop to fill the 168,000-square-foot facility, said vice-president Mark Zekulin. The company is licensed to produce 15,000 kilograms a year.
"We're going to fill it up as quickly as possible to service as many people as we can," he said. "We're going to, in the next couple of weeks, roll out information about the particular strains we're going to be carrying — we'll be having 25 different strains off the bat to deal with a number of different needs, different ailments. Everybody's different in terms of what they look for," he said.
Its master grower, Ryan Douglas, previously worked as cultivation manager for a state-regulated medical marijuana grower in Maine.
Tweed Inc. secured a licence to become a commercial supplier of marijuana from Health Canada, one of five companies that are listed as approved suppliers.
Canada changed the laws that allowed medical marijuana users to grow their own product last year.
Starting in October, licences were no longer available to those who wish to grow their own medical marijuana. As of April 2014, the practice will be outlawed.
Anyone using medical marijuana will need to get it from a licensed medical supplier.
Tweed Inc. purchased the old chocolate factory last year, but had been waiting on approval to go ahead with its plan, Zekulin said. Distribution will begin as early as April, he said.