SASKATOON – Saskatchewan-based company Prairie Plant Systems and its subsidiary CanniMed Ltd. have been issued the first two licenses in Canada to commercially produce medical marijuana under new regulations.
As of April 2014, medical marijuana users will no longer be able to grow their own pot – instead they’ll have to receive it through the mail from a licensed commercial producer.
Prairie Plant Systems Inc. has been the sole supplier to Health Canada for the past 13 years.
“Certainly we’re elated that we are the first producer and we’ve formed a subsidiary company called CanniMed to actually start to interact with patients and doctors to deliver the products for them that would be cannabis based and so we’re quite excited about the opportunities,” said Brent Zettl, CEO of Prairie Plant Systems.
Prairie Plant Systems expects to have its first products available by the end of the year.
The active ingredients in medical marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), bind to chemical receptors in the human body.
This appears to enhance some responses like appetite, and inhibiting others, such as pain and nausea.
In Canada almost 30,000 people are licensed to possess the drug under the medical marijuana program.
Of those approximately 18,000 grow it themselves.
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