Canopy reveals plan for marijuana expansion into Atlantic Canada

Canada’s biggest medical marijuana producer unveiled more details about its expansion into Atlantic Canada, a four-province region currently home to only two companies licensed to cultivate and sell MMJ.

Canopy Growth is buying Fredericton, New Brunswick-based Spot Therapeutics for 2.25 million Canadian dollars ($1.8 million) in stock, the company announced in a news release. New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador make up Atlantic Canada.

Spot has applied to Health Canada for a license to produce marijuana.

Canopy – based in Smiths Falls, Ontario, and traded as WEED on the Toronto Stock Exchange – also expects to finalize in early September its acquisition of a facility from Bird Holdings in Fredericton, where a production and distribution platform will be established.

Production will commence in two phases. Phase one – a 40,000-square-foot space to produce 4,000 kilograms of dried cannabis annually – is anticipated to be up and running by the end of the year.

Canopy said the facility could more than double in size – to 100,000 square feet – once it’s fully built out, but the company provided no details on the timing of stage two.

Canada’s 56 licensed cannabis producers are aggressively expanding capacity to meet growing MMJ demand and prepare for the launch of the country’s recreational marijuana market next summer.