Ontario First Nation decides to grow Medical Marijuana

Posted by Sagar Satapathy on November 28, 2015.

The Wahgoshig First Nation in Ontario has announced its plans to start medical marijuana business. It will partner with an Ontario company, DelShen Therapeutics to covert an old forestry operation into a facility, which will be used to grow medical pot, which will be a strain developed in the Netherlands for medical purposes.

The entire process is expected to cost $18 million. The First Nation will bear $2 million of the total expenses. The project may become a huge success, benefiting the entire region, believes the First Nation.

Initially, the venture will create 30 jobs and up to 100 jobs once it becomes fully operational. A training program will be developed to ensure people from the Wahgoshig First Nation region get first priority in those jobs. As the community has a population of just 234, it will have a great potential impact on their financial conditions.

Wahgoshig is not the first First Nation to consider medical marijuana for economic development. In 2014, the Penticton Indian Band in British Columbia had also decided to develop a multi-million dollar marijuana growing facility. In 2013, the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick too worked with an American company to build a medical marijuana research and treatment facility.

The Health Canada has regulated medical marijuana, listing 26 licensed producers across the country. 14 of them are based in Ontario.

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