Moncton’s medicinal marijuana company plans further expansion

MONCTON, N.B. – Atlantic Canada’s first medicinal marijuana plant has sold out of its product before it’s even shipped out a single order.

OrganiGram will ship its first batch of medicinal marijuana two weeks ahead of schedule. Global News got an exclusive tour of the 20,000-square-foot facility on Thursday.

“We’ve cultivated our first crop about two weeks ago and it’s currently curing and we will be able to ship the product in a couple of weeks,” said Denis Arsenault, CEO of OrganiGram. “We are currently under construction now to more than double our capacity. And we’ll have another expansion that will be started October 1 to add another large section onto the building.”

Arsenault says the high demand for the drug means they’ll be able to hire dozens more employees. The expansion will generate more than $30-million in sales and create about 40 more jobs by next summer.

Plans include a call centre to service clients and physicians with questions about the controversial drug.

The company is sold out of medicinal marijuana until next February.

Randy Flemming has legally grown his own marijuana for medical use for the past 20 years. He’s now Organigram’s master marijuana grower.

“I used it for arthritis personally,” said Flemming. “I’ve got Psoriatic arthritis, I have had it for the best part of 20 years and I find it very, very effective anti-inflammatory and pain reliever.”

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Arsenault says the company needs to make another investment.

“The medical community is looking for some solid research and that will begin in the very near future due to the fact that there are now companies that have a vested interest in getting this research done,” he said.