Monday, February 22, 2016

FROM HEALTH MINISTER TO POT SALES

This is a story that is difficult to read and to publish.

The reason is that it shows how deep a rabbit hole we are are scurrying down at top speed.

The key element in the tale is that the Chair of the board of one of these hugely funded new medpot companies is the former Ontario Minister of Health, one George Smitherman.



Apparently what you learn as the Health Minister of a large Canadian province is how to market marijuana and make scads of money.

He is, of course, hardly alone.

We can boast in this outpost a former mayor/Premier and a former Police Chief and Attorney General who are now drinking the same Kool-Aid.

Kelowna firm gets license from federal government to produce medical pot products

THC BioMed Intl Ltd. is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSNX: THC)

THC BioMed will begin research this week, CEO and president John Miller said Sunday, and plans to start growing as soon as they can import seeds from The Netherlands. After they start producing, they will need to obtain a licence to sell from Health Canada.

Photograph by: THCbiomed.com, Internet photo

A B.C. firm aiming to specialize in cannabis edibles, oils and patches is one of two medical-marijuana producers newly licensed by the federal government.

THC BioMed Ltd. in Kelowna and Green Relief Inc. of Flamborough, Ont., both received their licences to cultivate pot on Feb. 18, Health Canada’s website shows.

They’re the first two new producers to be licensed since Justin Trudeau’s government took power after last October’s election, bringing the total to 29 licensed producers across Canada, including 16 in Ontario and seven in B.C.

THC BioMed will begin research this week, CEO and president John Miller said Sunday, and plans to start growing as soon as they can import seeds from The Netherlands. After they start producing, they will need to obtain a licence to sell from Health Canada.

THC is still waiting on the result of an application for a licence to produce cannabis oils, Miller said, and the company plans to specialize in “derivatives.”

A recent news release from the firm gives examples of derivatives such as edibles, anti-inflammatorytopical agents, patches, pills and encapsulated oils. “We believe the market is going to go more toward derivatives,” Miller said.

THC BioMed chairman Jason Walsh said as soon as the company’s name was added to the Health Canada website, “the phones went nuts” with calls from “tons of investors.”

THC BioMed Intl Ltd. is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSNX: THC). Trading was temporarily halted last week pending a formal announcement, expected Monday, about the licensing, said George Smitherman, the former Ontario politician and director of THC BioMed’s board.
Smitherman, who’s also involved with two other medical-marijuana firms in Ontario, said he was first exposed to the sector during his tenure as Ontario’s minister of health, adding it’s an “exciting” time in the growth industry.

The other new licence issued last week went to Green Relief Inc., an “aquaponic” grow operation, combining aquaculture and hydroponics. The facility, outside Hamilton, Ont., includes a recirculating water system and 8,000 tilapia fish whose waste will fertilize the plants.

“It’s the most sustainable form of agriculture known to mankind today,” Warren Bravo said, adding his operation will grow faster than other methods and require less water. “It’s the coolest thing ever.”
Green Relief, a private firm, will start growing next week in their 30,000-square-foot facility, with “aggressive expansion plans” for an additional 200,000 sq. ft., Bravo said, adding: “We want to be a dominant force in the industry, and advance the science of not only cannabis, but sustainable agriculture as well.”

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