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LEAMINGTON — They just look like three average-sized kitchen pots on a stovetop half-filled with molasses.

But there’s enough high-potency THC in those containers to keep everyone in Windsor stoned for a month. And the gooey contents — cannabis distillate with an ultra-high-inducing THC level of around 90 per cent — are worth about $3.4 million.

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“You know what they call this place? This is the liquid gold room,” Aphria interim CEO Irwin Simon told the Star on a tour this week.

For anyone to get into the sealed “refinement area” of Aphria Inc.’s sprawling Leamington operations, you need a company escort, company photo ID created at the front entrance, hairnet, spotless lab coat and footwear slip-ons. The scientists and lab workers handling that valuable liquid, processed from the acres of greenhouse marijuana plants grown on-site, also don protective gloves and goggles.

Photo by Dax Melmer / Windsor Star

This golden distillate is the raw material needed for Aphria’s next big push into Canada’s marijuana marketplace.