Article content continued

Ward says that Canada’s “world-class template” has set the stage for countries such as Germany and Switzerland to develop their own medical cannabis regulations.

“Canadian companies have also developed a model and framework for safe cultivation,” says Ward. “The user doesn’t have to worry about something coming out of a basement or warehouse. They’ve come to expect a product that could be used with the same confidence they experience when they open a soft drink.”

Maricann’s founding group leveraged its expertise in the pharmaceutical space to apply quality-control standards that could be maintained during cannabis production scale-up.

“We exercise the best of pharmaceutical quality control from the moment we clone the plants to the moment the product is delivered,” Ward says. “We treat it as medicine. Everyone knows the exact contents of the product they’re getting. We’ll be observing those same standards for the recreational market.”

However, Ward notes that Maricann never anticipated the rapid shift to legalizing recreational cannabis in Canada. Early announcements led to a retooling of the company’s business plan as restrictions in capital markets eased.

The company’s Langton growing facility is currently expanding from 44,000 square feet to almost one million.

“We believe that there will be a demand in the Canadian market for one million kilos annually once rec and medical are fully implemented,” says Ward. “We also believe the European market could represent five to six times the Canadian market when medical opens up. But to serve that market, we realized we’d have to build out facilities over the next 18 months and then allow another six months for plants to mature and be harvested.”