Article content

It’s an unassuming building located in an industrial area well within the Calgary city limits.

You’d never know it from looking at it, but this building is home to a very large medical cannabis production operation known as BOAZ Pharmaceuticals.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Take a look inside a licensed cannabis production facility Back to video

The 21,000-square-foot BOAZ production facility was designed with the use of 16′ x 40′ sea cans or “production pods” that are easily stackable, which allows the company to almost double its usable floor space: a technique that will surely come in handy in an industry which seems to thrive on maximizing space.

Separated into numerous different rooms to help accommodate each stage of the cannabis production process, the building currently houses two grow rooms, a nursery room, dry pod, trim room, an oil extraction lab and a storage vault with security features that rival any major financial institution. By the time the facility is complete, company officials hope that there will be upwards of 8,000 kilograms of dried cannabis product shipping each year.

“Our first priority is medical and we want to stay true to that,” says president David Isaak. “We would never want to run out of product for our patients — which is one of the biggest concerns that we hear.”

Dubbed as a “craft” cannabis producer, BOAZ Pharmaceutical Master grower Bill Vasilakakos takes pride in his hands-on approach to growing the plants.

“We do not use any automation,” he says. “Everything is done by hand — we stay very intimate to our plants right to the end.”

When asked what it’s like to work within the budding new industry, Vasilakakos quickly responds, “My boss sends me pictures of cannabis plants all the time. It always smells like pot when I come into work — and we wouldn’t have it any other way!”

Check out the video above for a complete tour of the BOAZ Pharmaceutical Medical Cannabis production facility.