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Bedrocan Cannabis Corp. on Wednesday morning announced that medical marijuana production has commenced at its Toronto-area facility. The company previously described this facility as the most advanced of its kind anywhere in the world.

Bedrocan is growing plants that are genetic clones of the ones that its Dutch partner Bedrocan BV produces in the Netherlands. The company imported live cannabis plants from Holland shortly after getting its production licence from Health Canada last month, which paved the way for domestic production to begin.

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“We believe that this is a positive development for the company and demonstrates management’s ability to execute on its strategy and remain on track for first patient shipment from domestic operations in [Q2],” Clarus Securities analyst Neal Gilmer said in a note.

While the licence and first production are obviously key milestones for Bedrocan, Mr. Gilmer sees more positive catalysts ahead in 2015. Given the company’s extensive growing experience, he thinks it should be able to ramp up production relatively quickly and expand its patient database, generating sales and earnings through the second half of the year.

The company is already well positioned with an existing patient list that is receiving supply from Bedrocan’s Dutch partner, he noted.

Mr. Gilmer has a speculative buy rating on the stock and a price target of $1.50 a share, which is roughly double the current level.