Licensed cannabis producers in Hamilton, Ontario are at loggerheads with city officials over where their grow-ops will go.
The tussle began last month, after Liberal MPP for Hamilton Ted McMeekin and several city council members suggested restricting where medicinal cannabis growers will be able to set up greenhouses once the product is legalized.
Ian Wilms, vice-chair of Green Organic Dutchman, told the city council's planning committee that "any contaminants or pollutants could cause devastating crop failure, and we could not give this to our patients whatsoever." He says as per the company's Health Canada license, any product that is compromised must be destroyed.
Wilms stressed that growers want to be in rural areas where air quality is better. Nevertheless, city councillor Lloyd Ferguson has suggested a limit on grow-ops in rural areas, stricter regulation, and a priority for growing food over cannabis.
Councilor Matthew Green was skeptical of the air-quality claim, noting that grow-ops are indoors and can create environments that keep out air pollution.
There are currently four licensed medicinal marijuana corporations in the Hamilton area, but that number is likely to spike once cannabis is legalized in July 2018.
Green Organic Dutchman wants an additional 150,000 square feet to its current 7,000 square foot facility, while Beleave wants to expand its 14,000 square foot operation by an additional 80,000 square feet.
Both companies said they would find other spaces to develop if the restrictions are imposed by the city council.
Bill Panagiotakopoulos of Beleave told Global News that the Ontario municipalities Welland, Burlington, and Caledonia have already approached them for business.
Last month, McMeekin told the Hamilton Spectator he wants industrial-sized marijuana greenhouses to stay away from land that's fit for cultivation.
He suggests licensed growers look to northern Ontario to build their businesses, since the region could use the jobs and economic growth.
There is such little prime agricultural land left with all the development happening that it should totally be protected and used for growing food. Food security in communities plays a far larger role in overall health than growing medicine which is really only treating the symptoms. Eating healthy and having access to healthy food can prevent illness so all Provinces should be striving to preserve what little farmland we have left for food production and the health of future generations.