CALGARY — Alberta’s cannabis testing and research labs expect to see a boom in business once the drug is finally legalized in October.

There are 42 labs in Canada currently authorized to test and experiment on cannabis samples, according to a Health Canada list. Just four are in Alberta: the University of Alberta’s Rexall Centre for Pharmacy and Health Research, as well as InnoTech Alberta Inc., Keystone Labs, and Labs-Mart Inc. Seventeen labs are in Ontario.

When Oct. 17 arrives, cannabis testing and research will have to compensate for an expected spike in cannabis producers, said Jodi McDonald, manager of Keystone Labs.

“We expect more producers to be online, which will require more testing,” McDonald said.

Keystone Labs, based in Edmonton, already conducts testing on a variety of cannabis products. The third-party pharmaceutical-testing company started in 2005 and received its licence to test cannabis in 2015. Since then, cannabis testing has grown to 20 per cent of its business, McDonald told StarMetro Edmonton last month.

The lab also expects to move into testing edibles when they become legal for recreational use in Canada, roughly a year after cannabis is first legalized, McDonald said. Testing these items, such as gummy bears, might prove to be a bit difficult, but she added Keystone would be up to the task.

“It’s totally possible, it just adds a layer of fun,” McDonald said.

InnoTech Alberta, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alberta Innovates, helps companies in the private sector decide how to grow in the cannabis space. It tests cannabis for safe consumption and also helps companies involved in production. Not surprisingly, it also has plans to expand.

“Absolutely,” said Dwayne Brunner, a spokesperson for Alberta Innovates, when asked.

Alberta may only have a handful of cannabis testing facilities, but the province, along with the rest of Canada, is in a good position to become a world leader in cannabis testing and research. James MacKillop, director of the DeGroote Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research at McMaster University, said Canada’s approach to regulating cannabis at the federal level helps.

“One of the great advantages in Canada is the current legal environment is basically compatible across provincial and federal law,” MacKillop said. The U.S. by comparison, he added, has an extremely complicated and “tortured” relationship between its state and federal laws over the regulation of cannabis.

“That has created a lot of complications in terms of doing research, and as far as different practices across state lines,” he said.

McDonald also said Canada is well positioned precisely because the government has allowed labs to conduct tests on cannabis for research purposes since 2013.

“I think it’s because we’ve had federal support for so long,” she said.

Ultimately, the legalization of cannabis will make for unprecedented research opportunities, MacKillop said. The DeGroote Centre has been examining the medical properties of cannabis since its launch, but will also be delving into how exactly legalization changes the consumption patterns of Canadians.

Nonetheless, understanding the drug’s properties will still be top-of-mind for researchers.

“I think legalization changes a lot about access and quality control and distribution of cannabis,” MacKillop said. “It doesn’t change anything about the science of cannabis.”

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With files from Kevin Maimann, StarMetro Edmonton

Correction — July 3, 2018: This article was updated from a previous version to correct the name of InnoTech Alberta.

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