Nu skal det være slut med hjemmedyrket marihuana i Canada. I stedet skyder en stor fabrik op til formålet i en lille by. Borgmesteren er ellevild

I en efterladt fabrik, hvor chokoladegiganten Hershey tidligere holdte til i Smith Falls i Canada, skal nu til at lave noget helt andet, end hvad den har været vant til.

Canadas premierminister Stephan Harper har givet tilladelse til produktion af receptpligtig marihuana til Tweed Inc. Det skriver Aftonposten.

I lokalavisen The Ottawa Citizen er Smith Falls' borgmester Dennis Staples begejstret for, at den 470.000 kvadratmeter store fabrik igen bliver taget i brug efter Hershey flyttede ud i 2008, og 1700 mistede jobbet i en by med bare 9000 indbyggere.

- Verden har ændret sig, og dette er en legitimering af en industri som tusindvis af canadiere har brug for. Det kommer til at skabe jobs, som vi godt kan bruge, siger Dennis Staples.

Dette sker i kølvandet på, at Canada i sommer satte en stopper for, at man kunne dyrke marihuana til medicinsk brug i hjemmet.

Det sker dog ikke uden protester. Formanden for Canadian Medical Association Louis Hugo Francescutti understreger, at der ikke findes nogen standarder for hvordan man doserer marihuana, da de ikke er ligesom andre medikamenter.

- Vi skal være helt sikre på, at vi ikke skaber en nation af misbrugere, siger Louis Hugo Francescutti til Aftonbladet.

Formanden for Tweed Inc Bruce Linton peger på, at Canadas valg om godkendt produktion kan være første skridt mod noget større.

- Dette kan i stor stil blive opfulgt af andre lande, siger Bruce Linton.

A Canadian start-up wants to turn an empty chocolate factory in eastern Ontario into a production facility for medical marijuana, a possible boost for a local economy that has been hurting since the landmark Hershey plant shut down in 2008.

The old factory, which for decades churned out Hershey chocolate bars, has been conditionally sold to a start-up called Tweed Inc, which plans to use about a third of the 470,000 square foot plant to grow medical marijuana.


“It’s an exciting opportunity,” said Mark Zekulin, Tweed’s vice president of community engagement. “There is a demand and there’s good opportunity in this market.”

Tweed Inc has applied to Health Canada for a permit to grow medical marijuana at the factory in Smith Falls, Ontario, some 350 km from Toronto. It will distribute its product to patients across Canada who have permission to use the drug.

Canada legalized medical marijuana in 2001, authorizing an initial 500 people to grow and smoke the drug. That number has since ballooned to about 30,000, causing headaches for those who regulate and police marijuana use.

The government earlier this year responded with a plan to take legal production out of private homes and license private companies to produce medical marijuana for authorized patients.

Hence Tweed’s efforts to get into the legal growing and distribution game. The company, which expects to hear back from regulators soon, plans to spend about $1.5-million retrofitting the old chocolate factory. Once up and running, the plant will employ about 100 people.

It’s a glimmer of hope for the town of Smith Falls, which has so far embraced Tweed’s growing plan.

“In the last five or six years, we’ve lost 1,700 jobs,” said Dennis Staples, mayor of the town of 9,000 people. Expressing hope that Tweed’s investment could trigger other jobs, he added: “This announcement by Tweed Inc is welcome news for us.”

Most of those jobs losses were at the Hershey plant, but the closure of a few other local businesses and a provincial facility also cut jobs.