With the imminent legalization of marijuana for recreational use and increasing demand for medicinal cannabis, commercial grower Tweed is more than doubling its production space in Smiths Falls — and its sister company Tweed Farms has been approved to sell product through its Niagra-On-The-Lake location.

Bruce Linton, chief executive of Canopy Growth Corp., a $260-million publicly traded company with Tweed, Tweed Farms Inc. and Bedrocan under its umbrella, called the company’s new licence a “major milestone” that gives it the green light to produce medical marijuana in what might be — at 350,000 square feet — Canada’s largest greenhouse.

All three brands are licensed suppliers under Health Canada’s Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) program, which provides Canadians with pharmaceutical grade cannabis.

“We acquired the greenhouse 22 months ago to position ourselves as a large scale, low-cost producer capable of supplying a sizable percentage of the market,” Linton said in a news release.

Meanwhile momentum continues to build at Tweed’s sprawling campus in the former Hershey chocolate factory in Smiths Falls that closed in 2008.

Though it’s a stone’s throw from the town’s police station across the street, the 168,000-square-foot building is secure, with swipe cards required for every door, a super-sized walk-in bank vault that stores up to $150 million worth of product, and at least 150 cameras covering every grow room, cubicle and hallway.

Inside the plant, which is not open to the public, the space resembles a high-tech research lab. Grow technicians in protective gear work in sterile, temperature, odour and light-controlled “flowering rooms”, with rows of vibrant green plants of various strains and maturity. And given the Supreme Court of Canada ruled last summer to allow authorized medicinal cannabis users to use extracts and derivatives of cannabis, Tweed is now producing and selling cannabis oil products and edibles.

Up to 18 more grow rooms will be built over the next year or so, in a large vacant space resembling an aircraft hangar, bringing the number from 12 to 30, depending on market demand.

“We are definitely accelerating it because we think that there are pretty clear signs that we are going to have a non-medical market,” said communications manager Jordan Sinclair. “But I think that we would have got there regardless ... it’s starting to look like people are learning more about (medical cannabis), more doctors are learning more about it, more doctors are prescribing, and more people are curious about it.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana, many people keeping a close eye on Canada’s new policy-in-the-making, including notorious rapper and cannabis connoisseur Snoop Dogg, who wants to tap into what could possibly turn into a $5-billion industry.

The singer sent his people to scope out the Tweed site and in February entered into a partnership to give Tweed exclusive rights to use brands owned by his company, LBC Holdings.

Tweed, which opened in 2014 and now employs about 120 people from the Smiths Falls area, is licensed to produce 3,500 kilograms of medical cannabis a year.

pmccooey@postmedia.com