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SMITHS FALLS, Ont. — The journey to the centre of Canada’s marijuana economy begins on a stretch of country road in eastern Ontario.

It weaves through a patchwork of cornfields and hamlets before settling in Smiths Falls — a town that boasts a stone mill, a Lion’s Club that meets every second Thursday and a factory that grows cannabis by the tonne.

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The building on Hershey Dr. looks barren. Weeds sprout between cracks in the asphalt parking lot and its stucco walls betray a painfully dated style of architecture.

For nearly over 40 years, this place manufactured enough Hershey’s Kisses to crown Smiths Falls the “Chocolate Capital of Ontario.” But in 2007, Hershey laid off 600 workers, shuttered the factory and moved it to Mexico.

Today, the plant is home to the Canopy Growth Corporation and its Tweed brand of medical marijuana.

There’s an element of absurdist humour to this: The place that once churned out untold crates of Reese’s Pieces now grows medical marijuana strains with names like Lemon Skunk and Boaty McBoatface.