PORT COLBORNE — The president of a company planning to build a commercial medical marijuana production facility in Port Colborne applauds the government for its changes to the system.

Marc Kealey, the former chief executive officer of the Ontario Pharmacists' Association and president and chairman of Muileboom Organics, said the government was right to commercialize the medical marijuana industry but agrees with a British Columbia judge who recently filed an injunction to allow those licensed to grow marijuana under the old system to continue doing so — for now. He said like Bill 102, the transparent drug system for patients, the government moved too fast on the changes. And Kealey know a thing or two about that piece of legislation.

Kealey was in his role as OPA CEO and helped pen the law that was touted to save the province $227 million a year. He said the 2006 problem is repeating itself because of unrealistic timelines. Kealey said he wasn't surprised to hear Federal Court Judge Michael Manson's ruling that allowed current licensed growers to continue doing so.

"When the government of Ontario went down the path of looking at restructuring its public drug program they said it's going to change on this date, and that was November of that year," said Kealey. "The problem was, the industry couldn't react to a transition so short."

The industry was supposed to be ready to supply the roughly 38,000 medical marijuana users in the country by April 1, 2014. The some 25,000 patients authorized to grow their own were told to destroy their plants by April 1 and notify Health Canada of that fact by April 30.

While the injunction allows patients to continue growing in home operations, Health Canada has announced it will appeal the decision. Justice Manson's ruling would allow patients to continue to grow until a constitutional challenge to the MMPR can be heard.

It's déjà vu for Kealey in his new role as president and chairman of a company seeking a commercial license to produce medical marijuana through the new Marihauna for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR).

"There needed to be more time," he said. "But it is the right way to go. It needs to be moved out of people's homes and into bonafide commercial facilities."

Muileboom's application is to operate a facility that would produce 1,500 kilograms of medical marijuana per year — roughly enough to fill 1,300 prescriptions. The company has applied for an application to establish a facility at 462 Pinecrest Road in Port Colborne, an area surrounded by homes. Medical marijuana is already growing at the site. Four license holders grow for personal use in the greenhouses on the rural part of the city's east side. Kealey said the company has invested a large amount into the facility to be ready should their license be granted.

Muileboom Organics has been working on a plan since the government announced the changes in June 2013.