In June, Tweed’s parent company acquired Spektrum Cannabis, a German company that distributes medical marijuana to some 400 pharmacies across the country. Beyond Germany, Tweed is now exporting to Australia and Brazil as well. As of August, the company had sold some 69,000 grams of weed world-wide. That number might be low, but the company expects its about to grow exponentially. (As of the end of June, 2014, Canada had less than 8,000 medical marijuana patients. As of this past June, it had more than 200,000.)

“With cannabis continuing to emerge from the shadows, many countries are looking to Canada,” reports security filings from Canopy Growth, which owns Tweed.

Tilray, which is backed by a significant investment from U.S. investment fund Privateer Holdings, is also aggressively courting Europe. Last month, they announced a $29 million (CAD) European facility to grow and package their marijuana in Portugal. They’ve also aggressively targeted the German market, after the Bundestag voted unanimously to approve the sale of medical marijuana in March. The company expects it will break into five more European countries by the end of the year.



Speaking to iPolitics.ca earlier this month, Tilray President Brendan Kennedy pointed out that not only is Canadian industry experienced in growing and selling pot, it's one of the only countries where exporting marijuana is legal.

“If we were in any other industry, Canadians would be celebrating the fact that there’s global demand for our products," Kennedy told the news site.

It definitely helps Canadian industry that they're all gearing up for a big date next summer.

Legalization is set to come into effect in Canada by next July — the first national government in the world to approval recreational sale — and those pot companies are already scrambling to get a piece of the marijuana pie. Billions of dollars in revenue is set to be divvied up between the 70-odd licensed producers who are currently operating.

But many producers privately complain that Canadian regulators are overbearing. Beyond the dizzying level of security and agricultural rules and regulations around growing the marijuana itself, licensed producers must currently seek government approval for every single export deal it signs with a foreign government.